Serbian local elections, 2008

Local elections were held in Serbia on 11 May 2008. According to the Constitutional Law adopted by the National Assembly on 30 September 2006 that proclaimed the new constitution, the parliamentary Speaker (at that time Oliver Dulić from DS) had to schedule the elections for local administrative units by 31 December 2007. He scheduled them on 2007-12-29. Following the official breakdown of the government on 8 March 2008, early parliamentary elections were held on the same date. A revote was held in three polling stations in Belgrade on 18 May 2008 due to irregularities in the electoral process.

Negotiations between the ruling parties, the President's DS and the Premier's DSS, were trying to enact a compromise on the date of the election. Tadić's Democratic Party wanted to respect the constitutional law, wanting to schedule the election by the end of year and hold it in March 2008, which is DSS's demand because of the solution of the status of Kosovo. G17 Plus wanted the Mayors and municipal Presidents to be elected directly as in the past, but the Democratic Party wanted them to be elected by the local parliaments.

Four laws necessary for the local elections (on territorial organisation, the capital, local elections and local self-government) were passed before the elections.

Ever since the death of Belgrade Mayor Nenad Bogdanović the Serbian Radical Party has demanded parliamentary Speaker Oliver Dulic to schedule a Mayoral election, however Dulić said that the Constitutional Law mandated him to schedule general local elections simultaneously.

The new Law of Belgrade foresaw a Mayor elected from the City Parliament.

In areas geographically comprising Sandžak, the Sandžak Democratic Party and Democratic Party ran in local elections together. The European Coalition of DS, G17+ and SPO ran in all Municipalities and Cities, except in Niš, where G17+ had been part of ruling coalition for the last years and where DS was running against them. The "Serb List" political of SRS, DSS, NS, SPS and several nationalist civic groups and organizations had been formed and ran in most of Vojvodina locally.

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