Seat of the provincial institutions of Vojvodina in Novi Sad
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
In addition to parliamentary and local elections in 66 cities and municipalities, election for the Provincial Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina will also take place on 17 December. It is the first snap election in Vojvodina since 1992.
The election was called on 16 November, leaving just 30 days for the campaign, the first nine of which were mostly spent on the collection of signatures. This left less than tree weeks for the actual campaign which has, according to all observers, been completely overshadowed by the national election.
According to the Constitution of Serbia, Vojvodina has competences in the areas which include agriculture, spatial planning, transport, tourism, culture, education, health and sport.
The Province is known for its multi-ethnic population. According to the 2022 population census, out of 1,740,230 citizens, 68.4% identify as Serbs, 10.47% as Hungarians, 2.35% as Romani, 2.29% as Slovak, 1.87% as Croat and 1,14% as Romanian. Other minorities, including Rusyns, Bunjevci, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Yugoslavs, also live in the province.
The unexpected calling of the election
Regular provincial election was scheduled for June 2024. However, in September 2023, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and de facto leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) announced snap parliamentary election as well as early elections in 66 municipalities. It soon became clear that early provincial election in Vojvodina would be held as well.
An early election was unexpected, which was demonstrated by the fact that the provincial budget for the year 2023 did not include expenses for an election and had to be amended in a last-minute procedure.
Curiously, no local elections will be held in Vojvodina, and it seems that they will be held in June 2024, when the term of the local parliaments expires. This is the first time ever that provincial and local elections in Vojvodina are being held separately.
There has been no consensus among the observers on why SNS decided to divide elections into two phases, as well as to hold elections in December at all.
On 30 October, leader of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians party (VMSZ) and President of the Provincial Assembly since 2012 István Pásztor passed away. The Provincial Assembly had to elect new President just to sign the decision on its dissolution.
Electoral system
There are 1,669,734 citizens with voting rights in the provincial election.
The Provincial Assembly has 120 seats elected through a closed-list proportional representation system, with a 3% threshold. The electoral system, therefore, is the same as on the national level.
This was not always the case. While Serbia transitioned from majoritarian to proportional system already in 1992, Vojvodina kept the majoritarian system (direct election for each of the 120 seats) until 2000. From 2004 to 2012, a mixed system was in used, in which 60 seats were elected directly and 60 via party lists.
Results of the two most recent provincial elections
In the 2016 provincial election, SNS won an outright majority, defeating the then President of the Provincial Government and President of the Democratic Party (DS) Bojan Pajtić. Among the national parties, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and Enough is Enough (DJB) also won seats.
League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV), the regionalist party, won 9 out of the 120 seats, while two lists representing Hungarian national minority won 8 seats.
In 2020, majority of the opposition boycotted the election (together with the parliamentary and the local ones). This enabled the ruling SNS-SPS-VMSZ coalition to win 100 out of 120 seats, while the rest was allocated to LSV and right-wing parties, helped by the lowered threshold of 3%.
Who are the candidates in 2023
Provincial Electoral Commission proclaimed 13 lists by 1 December.
The first 12 lists are composed of the same parties and coalitions that also submitted their lists for the parliamentary election. Three of them – Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina-Party of Justice and Reconciliation and the Russian Party represent national minorities.
The list 13 was submitted by a coalition led by the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, regionalist party which was an influential political force in the province for decades. However, it lost a large part of its support in recent years. It was criticised by some of its supporters for entering a local coalition with the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the city of Novi Sad in 2016.
The complete list of candidates for the 2023 Vojvodina provincial election:
- Aleksandar Vučić – Vojvodina Must Not Stop
- Ivica Dačić – Prime Minister of Serbia
- Vojislav Šešelj – Serbian Radical Party
- Russian Party – Serbs and Russians Brothers Forever!
- Dr. Miloš Jovanović – Hope for Serbia – Hope for Vojvodina – Serbian Coalition NADA – National Democratic Alternative – New Democratic Party of Serbia (New DSS) – Movement for the Renewal of the Kingdom of Serbia (POKS) – Vojislav Mihailović
- Vаjdasági Magyar Szövetség – Elnökünkért, Közösségünkért, a Jövőért!- Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians – For our President, for our community, for our future!
- Serbia Against Violence – Marinika Tepić – Mihailo Brkić (full list of the parties available here)
- Tomislav Žigmanov – United for Justice – Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina, Usame Zukorlić – Party of Justice and Reconciliation – Bosniaks of Sandžak
- Čedomir Jovanović – Vojvodina Must Do Differently
- People’s Party – Safe Choice. Serious People – Vuk Jeremić, Siniša Kovačević, Dr. Sanda Rašković Ivić, Đorđe Vukadinović
- Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski – Boško Obradović – National Rally – State-Building Force – Serbian Party Zavetnici – Serbian Movement Dveri
- Saša Radulović (Enough is Enough – DJB) – Boris Tadić (Social Democratic Party – SDS) – Ana Pejić (Abducted Babies) – Good Morning Serbia
- Vojvodinians – League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina – Democratic Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians – Together for Vojvodina – Bojan Kostreš
Campaign and expectations
The campaign has been largely overshadowed by the national election. It is therefore expected that many voters will vote based on their national preferences, which is also reflected in the names of the electoral lists.
One debate was held on the cable N1 television, in which the representatives of the ruling coalition refused to take part. Three debates on the public Radio-Television of Vojvodina have been scheduled for the final three days of the campaign.
The debates have focused on the topic of the constitutional competences of Vojvodina and whether they need to be expanded or reduced. Other topcis included the financing of the province, agriculture, water management (with the lack of clean drinking water being a persistent problem in Vojvodina) and the rights of national minorities.
The first weeks of the campaign were also marked by the protests of farmers in Vojvodina over state subsidies. The protesters eventually reached an agreement with the government.
The campaign has also been notable for the absence of the President of the Provincial Government since 2016, Igor Mirović. He was one of the early former members of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party to join the newly-founded Serbian Progressive Party in 2008. It is speculated that there is a conflict between Mirović and Miloš Vučević, current President of the Serbian Progressive Party who was the mayor of Novi Sad, the largest city of Vojvodina, from 2012 to 2022.
No polls have been conducted for the upcoming 2023 election in Vojvodina. The results of the 2022 parliamentary election in the province show that the support of the major parties was similar to their national-level result. VMSZ, expectedly, won a higher share of votes in Vojvodina than nationally.
Given the fact that VMSZ is a governing partner in the province, together with SNS and SPS, the most likely outcome, based on the national indicators, is that the ruling coalition will retain power. The opposition in the provincial assembly, however, is expected to be much stronger, especially after the boycotted 2020 election.
