Serbian parliamentary election, 2007

Serbian parliamentary election, 2007

21 January 2007
All 250 seats in the National Assembly 126 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	60.6%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Tomislav Nikolić Boris Tadić Vojislav Koštunica Party SRS DS DSS Leader since 2003 2004 1992 Last election 82 37 53 Seats won 81 / 250 64 / 250 DS 60, others 4 47 / 250 DSS 33, others 14 Seat change 1 41 6 Popular vote 1,153,453 915,854 667,615 Percentage 28.60% 22.71% 16.55%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Mlađan Dinkić Ivica Dačić Čedomir Jovanović Party G17 Plus SPS LDP Leader since 2006 2003 2005 Last election 31 22 0 Seats won 19 / 250 16 / 250 15 / 250 LDP 7, others 8 Seat change 12 6 15 Popular vote 275,041 227,580 214,262 Percentage 6.82% 5.64% 5.31%
PM before election Vojislav Koštunica DSS Elected PM Vojislav Koštunica DSS

The Serbian parliamentary election, 2007 was held in Serbia on 21 January 2007 to elect members of the National Assembly. The first session of the new National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia was held on 14 February 2007.

Electoral system

The d'Hondt method was used to distribute parliamentary mandates following the election. Parties and coalitions had 10 days following the announcement of the final results to decide which candidates will take their allotted seats in parliament. Parties then had three months to negotiate a government.

Parties registering as ethnic minority parties (options 8, 10, 14, 17, 19 and 20) did not need to surpass the 5% threshold to gain seats in the parliament, but instead needed to pass a natural threshold at 0.4%. For the first time in a decade, Albanian parties from the Preševo Valley participated in the elections, but Kosovo Albanian parties continued their boycott of Serbian elections.

6,652,105 voters were eligible to vote, an increase of 14,000 voters when compared to the constitutional referendum held a few months before. 31,370 of the eligible voters were living abroad, and 7,082 were in prison. Most Kosovo Albanians have not registered to vote. There were 8,441 ballot stations, 58 of which were abroad.

Campaign

Twenty party lists registered with the electoral commission before the deadline of 5 January 2007:

1. Democratic Party - its list also included the Sanjak Democratic Party, the Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina and the People's Democratic Party of Vojvodina, a Bunjevci political party. Candidates on the list were members of national Councils of the Slovak and Bunjevci national minorities as well. It promised SDP up to six seats, three guaranteed in the election. It proposed members for all 250 seats, with Ružica Đinđić, widow of former Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, as the first, followed by the party's head and President of Serbia Boris Tadić. The Party for Sanjak also supported this list. After winning 64 seats, it transferred 3 seats to SDP and 1 to DSHV, as per the agreement.
2. G17 Plus - led by Mlađan Dinkić
3. Liberal Democratic Party–Civic Alliance of Serbia–Social Democratic Union–League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina - the list also included prominent intellectuals of the Serbian society, including members of Christian Democratic Party of Serbia. The coalition leader was Čedomir Jovanović. Of its 14 seats, 5 went to LDP, 4 to GSS, 1 to GSS, which together formed a group with 1 from DHSS. LSV formed a separate parliamentary club with its 4 seats.
4. Serbian Radical Party - led by Vojislav Šešelj
5. Democratic Party of Serbia–New Serbia - the list also included United Serbia and Serbian Democratic Renewal Movement. It was led by Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica. Of the 47 seats won, 33 went to DSS, 10 to NS and 2 to each of SDPO and JS.
6. Strength of Serbia Movement - led by Bogoljub Karić
7. Serbian Renewal Movement - became a candidate party under on 4 December 2006 at 11:30am after accumulating 17,024 electoral signers. Headed by the temporary Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Drašković, it failed to pass the election threshold. The list included members of the Serbian List for the Return of Property, People's Peasant Party (of Marijan Rističević), Liberals of Serbia (represented by Radivoje Lazarević and Žarko Jokanović) and the Movement "I live for Krajina". The list's bearer is partial president Vuk Drašković followed by the vice-presidents of the party - Vlajko Senić, Srđan Srećković, Sanja Čeković, Žika Gojković and Mirko Čikiriz.
8. Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians - led by József Kasza
9. Party of United Pensioners of Serbia-Social Democratic Party - the SDP of Nebojša Čović ran in the election together with PUPS led by Jovan Krkobabić. The Party of United Pensioners of Serbia was supposed to get the greatest share of the coalition's seats. The Socialist People's Party was on this list as well.
10. List for Sanjak - led by Sulejman Ugljanin, it included the Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak the Bosniak Democratic Party of Sandžak, the Reformist Party of Sanjak, the Social Liberal Party of Sandžak and the Social Democratic Party of Sanjak
11. Socialist Party of Serbia
12. Branko Pavlović — "Because it has to be better"
13. Vojvodina parties - led by Igor Kurjački, it included the Vojvodina Party, the Civic Movement of Vojvodina, Our Vojvodina, the Srem Party, the Party of small shareholders, pensioners, unemployed and the Party of Pensioners and Workers of Serbia.
14. Roma Union of Serbia - led by Rajko Đurić, it also included members of Vlachs of Democratic Serbia
15. Reformist Party - led by Aleksandar Višnjić
16. Democratic Community of Serbia - led by Obren Joksimović and supported by the Party of the Disabled
17. Albanian Coalition from Preševo Valley - a coalition of Riza Halimi's Democratic Action Party and Skender Destani's Democratic Union of the Valley, two local ethnic Albanian parties from the Preševo Valley. The other two regional Albanian national minority parties were previously a part of the coalition, but changed their opinions later and called on Preševan Albanians to boycott the elections.
18. Social Democracy - ran together with the Socialdemocratic Party, the Cultural Movement of Serbia and the Serbian Kosovo-Metohijan Party on its list, headed by Nenad Vukasović.
19. Coalition Hungarian Union - led by András Ágoston and Pál Sándor, and included the Democratic Community of Hungarians of Vojvodina, the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Vojvodina and the 64 Counties youth movement.
20. Roma Party - led by Srđan Šajn

Slogans

The parties' campaign slogans for the 2007 election:

	Party	English slogan	Serbian slogan
	Democratic Party	Because life can't wait	Zato što život ne može da čeka Зато што живот не може да чека
	G17 Plus	Expertise before politics	Stručnost ispred politike Стручност испред политике
	Liberal-Democratic Party-Civic Alliance of Serbia-Social Democratic Union-League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina	It depends on us	Od nas zavisi Од нас зависи
	Serbian Radical Party	So that things become better already today	Da već danas bude bolje Да већ данас буде боље
	Democratic Party of Serbia / New Serbia	Long live Serbia	Živela Srbija Живела Србија
	Strength of Serbia Movement	Serbia has strength	Srbija ima snage Србија има снаге
	Serbian Renewal Movement	It's worth fighting for	Vredi se boriti Вреди се борити
	Socialist Party of Serbia	Serbia, Chin Up	Srbijo, glavu gore Србијо, главу горе
	Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians	New chance	Nova šansa Új esély (*)
	List for Sandžak	For Sandžak in European Serbia	Za Sandžak u evropskoj Srbiji За Санџак у европској Србији
	Albanian Coalition from Preševo Valley	For better life of Albanians in Preševo Valley	Za bolji život Albanaca u Preševskoj dolini За бољи живот Албанаца у Прешевској долини

The change figure for the Democratic Party of Serbia/New Serbia list is in comparison to the 2003 result for the Democratic Party of Serbia; New Serbia was aligned to the Serbian Renewal Movement in 2003. The grouping headed by the Liberal Democratic Party is new: the Liberal Democratic Party split off from the Democratic Party in 2005; Civic Alliance of Serbia and the Social Democratic Union were part of the Democratic Party list in 2003; and the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina were in a list with the Alliance of Vojvodina Magyars in 2003. The Coalition List for Sandžak previously stood as part of the Democratic Party list.

Results

The Republican Electoral Commission finally published the final results after the repetition of voting in several places:

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Serbian Radical Party	1,153,453	28.60	81	–1
Democratic Party	915,854	22.71	64	+41
Democratic Party of Serbia-New Serbia	667,615	16.55	47	–10
G17 Plus	275,041	6.82	19	–12
Socialist Party of Serbia	227,580	5.64	16	–6
LDP-GSS-SDU-LSV	214,262	5.31	15	+8
Serbian Renewal Movement	134,147	3.33	0	–13
Party of United Pensioners of Serbia	125,324	3.11	0	–3
Strength of Serbia Movement	70,727	1.75	0	—
Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians	52,510	1.30	3	+3
List for Sandžak	33,823	0.84	2	0
Roma Union of Serbia	17,128	0.42	1	+1
Albanian Coalition from Preševo Valley	16,973	0.42	1	+1
Branko Pavlović — "Because it has to be better"	15,722	0.39	0	—
Roma Party	14,631	0.36	1	+1
Hungarian Union	12,940	0.32	0	—
Vojvodina parties	7,359	0.18	0	—
Democratic Community of Serbia	5,438	0.13	0	—
Social Democracy	4,909	0.12	0	—
Reformist Party	1,881	0.05	0	—
Invalid/blank votes	66,269	–	–	–
Total	4,033,586	100	250	0
Registered voters/turnout	6,652,105	60.6	–	–

Seats

  SRS  (81)

  DS   (64)

  DSS−NS−JS  (47)

  G17 Plus  (19)

  SPS  (16)

  LDP−GSS−SDU−LSV  (15)

  National minorities  (8)

Reactions

• Dutch foreign minister Ben Bot congratulated Boris Tadić with the result, stating "the fact that Mr. Tadić has doubled his position in the parliament is of great importance, since it means that the Serbian people value a "pro-European" course".
• EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana stated "The majority voted for forces that are democratic and pro-European", continuing "I hope very much there will be a speedy formation of a government that will be on the line of "pro-European" forces."
• German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said "The radicals got most votes but nevertheless two thirds of the seats in parliament will go to "democratic" forces."
• Michael C. Polt, US ambassador to Serbia, congratulated Serbian people on results, stating that "the United States looks forward to continuing to work with you and your leadership as your country fulfills the promise of October 2000“.
• Jean Asselborn, Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg, stated that EU should show support to Serbia, after "democratic" forces won the elections, as NATO did when Serbia was invited to join "Partnership for Peace" despite not cooperating with the ICTY.
• Sergey Baburin, Vice-president of the Russian State Duma stated “the parties to form the government will soon hear Martti Ahtisaari’s recommendations for the settlement of the Kosovo issue, and I deem their position unenviable. In my opinion, parties are making a big mistake by not letting Serbian Radicals partake in the government. Patriotic parties in Serbia are getting potentially stronger”.

External links

• Republican Electoral Commission of the Republic of Serbia