Srđan Vulović

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Srđan Vulović (Serbian Cyrillic: Срђан Вуловић; born 1965) is a Kosovo Serb politician. Since 2019, has been the president (i.e., mayor) of Zubin Potok, a predominantly Serbian municipality in northern Kosovo[a] on the border with Central Serbia. He also served in the National Assembly of Serbia from 1997 to 2001.

Private career[]

Vulović is a graduated transportion engineer.[1] He has overseen the Belgrade-based company Ibar, which manages energy production on Gazivoda Lake, an artificial lake that produces vital cooling water for two coal plants that provided ninety-five per cent of Kosovo's electricity in 2018. Ownership of the lake and its resources have been the subject of a dispute between the governments of Serbia and Kosovo; Vulović contends that the right to manage the lake belongs to Serbia.[2][3]

Politician[]

Parliamentarian[]

Vulović received the fourth position on the electoral list of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) for the division of Kosovska Mitrovica in the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election.[4] The list won five out of seven seats in the division, and Vulović was included in the SPS's parliamentary delegation when the national assembly convened in December 1997.[5][6] (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates from successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds would be distributed amongst other candidates on the lists by the sponsoring parties.[7] It was common practice for the latter mandates to be awarded out of numerical order; Vulović's list position did not give him an automatic mandate.) The Socialist Party won the election, and Vulović served as a supporter of the administration.

Serbia's electoral laws were reformed after the fall of Slobodan Milošević's government in October 2000, such that the entire country was counted as a single electoral division and all mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions, irrespective of numerical order.[8] Vulović appeared in the twenty-eighth position on the Socialist Party's list in the 2000 Serbian parliamentary election, which was held in December of that year.[9] The list won thirty-seven seats; on this occasion, he was not selected for a mandate.[10] His term ended when the new assembly convened in January 2001.

Local politics[]

Early years[]

Vulović was identified in a December 2000 news report as chair of the municipal assembly of Zubin Potok, a position that was recognized in Serbia as equivalent to mayor. In this capacity, he helped to facilitate the distribution of voting materials among Kosovo Serb communities in the 2000 parliamentary election.[11]

Like most Kosovo Serb politicians, Vulović strongly opposes Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence and considers Kosovo to be the sovereign territory of Serbia. In 2008, he indicated that Kosovo Serb communities would not permit the authorities in Priština to re-establish checkpoints on the border with Central Serbia. He added that the communities would continue co-operating with the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and Kosovo Force (KFOR), in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.[12]

Mayor of Zubin Potok[]

The governments of Serbia and Kosovo partially normalized their relations under the 2013 Brussels Agreement, which, among other things, led to the renewed participation of northern Kosovo's Serb community in the broader politics of Kosovo. The agreement did not address the status of Kosovo, and the Serbian government considers Kosovo's current governing authorities to be provisional.

In November 2018, the mayors of Zubin Potok and three other predominantly Serb municipalities in the north of Kosovo resigned in protest against the Kosovo government's imposition of a one hundred per cent tax on goods from Serbia.[13] Vulović ran as the candidate of the Serb List in the subsequent mayoral by-election for Zubin Potok; he described the vote as "a referendum on how much the state of Serbia will be present here" and called for a high voter turnout.[14] The outcome was never in any serious doubt, and Vulović was elected mayor of the municipality in a landslide on 19 May 2019.

Shortly after his election, Vulović criticized the Kosovo Police for making an incursion into Zubin Potok under the auspices of anti-smuggling campaign; he contended that the people arrested had no connections to the underground economy and that the police had causes significant property damage through their actions.[15]

In April 2021, he signed a twinning agreement between Zubin Potok and Gradiška in the Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.[16]

He was re-elected, again without any serious competition, in the 2021 Kosovan local elections.

Electoral record[]

Local[]

2021 Municipality of Zubin Potok local election
Mayor of Zubin Potok[17]
Candidate Party Votes %
Srđan Vulović (incumbent) Serb List 3,225 83.53
Slaviša Biševac Citizens' Initiative Zubin Potok 377 9.76
Qerkin Veseli Democratic League of Kosovo 259 6.71
Total valid votes 3,861 100
2019 Municipality of Zubin Potok local by-election
Mayor of Zubin Potok[18]
Candidate Party Votes %
Srđan Vulović Serb List 4,075 94.59
Hysen Mehmeti Democratic Party of Kosovo 123 2.86
Liridona Kahrimani Levizja Vetëvendosje! 110 2.55
Total valid votes 4,308 100

Notes[]

  1. ^ The political status of Kosovo is disputed. Having unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, it is formally recognised as an independent state by 97 UN member states (with another 15 recognising it at some point but then withdrawing recognition), while Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory.

References[]

  1. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска опозиција Србије – др Војислав Коштуница (3 Социјалистичка партија Србије – Слободан Милошевић), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
  2. ^ Ismet Hajdari and Tanja Vujišić, "Lake Gazivode, troubled waters," Agence France Presse, 25 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Који је значај Газивода?", Radio Television of Serbia, 7 September 2018, accessed 12 January 2022.
  4. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (27 Косовска Митровица), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
  5. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
  6. ^ PRVA SEDNICA, 03.12.1997., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 12 January 2022.
  7. ^ Guide to the Early Election, Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017.
  8. ^ Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017.
  9. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска опозиција Србије – др Војислав Коштуница (3 Социјалистичка партија Србије – Слободан Милошевић), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
  10. ^ PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 12 January 2022.
  11. ^ "Serb official hopes to see voting in all Serb-majority Kosovo municipalities," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 23 December 2000 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1347 gmt 21 Dec 00). Vulović would presumably have been elected to the Zubin Potok municipal assembly in the 1996 Serbian local elections, in which the SPS won a majority victory in the municipality. See Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 92.
  12. ^ "Kosovo Serbs threaten to obstruct operation of border checkpoints," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 9 March 2008 (Source: Politika, 7 March 2008).
  13. ^ "Градоначелници са севера КиМ ступили на дужност", Politika, 19 June 2019, accessed 12 January 2022.
  14. ^ "Кандидати Српске листе: Очекујемо одзив Срба већи него икад", Dnevnik, 13 May 2019, accessed 12 January 2022.
  15. ^ "Протест у К. Митровици: Срби решени да остану своји на своме", Office for Coordination Affairs in the negotiation process with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Prishtina, Government of Serbia, 29 May 2019, accessed 12 January 2022.
  16. ^ "Потписан споразум о братимљењу Градишке и Зубиног Потока", Glas Srpske, 24 April 2021, accessed 12 January 2022.
  17. ^ ZGJEDHJET PËR KRYETARË TË KOMUNAVE 2021 – Rezultatet e Statistikat (Raundi i parë), Komisioni Qendror i Zgjedhjeve, accessed 12 January 2022.
  18. ^ ZGJEDHJET E JASHTËZAKONSHME PËR KRYETAR KOMUNE 2019 NË: MITROVICË TË VERIUT, ZUBIN POTOK, LEPOSAVIQ DHE ZVEÇAN – Rezultatet dhe Statistikat, Komisioni Qendror i Zgjedhjeve, accessed 12 January 2022.
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