“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No. 10/03

Law on Election of Deputies in the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro

Article 1

This Law regulates election and termination of mandate of the deputies in the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro (hereinafter referred to as: the deputies).

Article 2

The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia delegates 91 deputies in the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, in accordance with the Constitutional Charter of the state community of Serbia and Montenegro (hereinafter referred to as: the Constitutional Charter).

The deputies are elected for a term of two years, in accordance with the Constitutional Charter.

Article 3

Distribution of mandates in the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro shall encompass political parties and political coalitions as well as other organisations represented in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

A candidate for the deputy may be the national deputy, or, in the first elections for deputies in the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, the federal deputy in the Chamber of Citizens or the Chamber of Republics of the Federal Parliament.

Article 4

The Republican Electoral Commission takes care of the election of deputies.

Article 5

The deputies are elected in proportion with the number of national deputies in each deputies’ group in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter: deputies’ groups).

Administrative Board of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia determines a number of deputies to be elected at the proposal of particular deputies’ group in according to the principle of distribution of mandates established by the Law on Election of deputies, by method of system of biggest denominators (d’Hondt System), where the number of votes gained shall be considered the number of national deputies the nominator has in the National Assembly, which is subsequently divided by numbers from one to 91. The denominators shall be sorted by value, and 91 biggest denominators shall be taken in consideration.

The number of deputies determined for each deputies’ group will equal the respective number of denominators from the Paragraph 2 of this Article. If two or more deputies’ groups have same denominators for assignment of one deputy’s mandate, and there are no more unassigned mandates, the deputy’s mandate shall be assigned to the deputies’ group that has more national deputies.

The Administrative Board of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia shall make a decision from Paragraph 1 of this Article on the next day following the enactment of this Law and forward it to the President of the National Assembly, who forwards it to the deputies in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

Article 6

The President of the National Assembly calls the parliamentary session in which the election of deputies will be made, not later than eight days before the day set for the session to be held.

The terms for conduct of electoral activities commence on the day of calling the parliamentary session from the Paragraph 1 of this Article.

Article 7

The nomination for election of deputies shall be submitted on behalf of the authorised nominator by the head of the deputies’ group in the National Assembly.

Article 8

The deputies’ groups may submit nominations of candidacies for deputies not later than seven days before the day set for election of deputies.

Article 9

The nomination made by the deputies’ group is legally valid if it comprises the number of candidates to be elected from the deputies’ group.

The nomination shall be submitted in written form and shall comprise personal names of candidates and each candidate’s written statement on acceptance of the candidacy.

Article 10

The nomination made by the deputies’ group shall be submitted to the Republican Electoral Commission, which shall determine, within the term of 24 hours following the submission, if the nomination is made and submitted in accordance with the stipulations of this Law.

Article 11

If the nomination submitted by the deputies’ group is not made or submitted in accordance with the stipulations of this Law, not later than 24 hours upon detection of inconsistencies, the Republican Electoral Commission shall call the submitter of nomination to rectify the inconsistencies within the term of 48 hours.

In case the submitter of nomination does not rectify the inconsistencies within the term prescribed in the Paragraph 1 of this Article, the Republican Electoral Commission shall dismiss the nomination.

Article 12

If the deputies’ group does not nominate candidates for deputies, or in case its nomination is dismissed, the number of deputies elected from the ranks of deputies’ groups that submitted nominations made in accordance with the stipulations of this Law shall be increased accordingly.

The Administrative Board of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia shall determine, in proportion with the number of national deputies in each deputies’ group in the National Assembly, a degree of increase in number of deputies being elected from the ranks of the deputies’ groups that submitted the nominations in accordance with the stipulations of this Law.

Article 13

The elections shall be conducted on the basis of Joint List of candidates submitted by the deputies’ groups, prepared by the Republican Electoral Commission.

The Joint list of candidates shall be made as per the deputies’ groups, while the order of the deputies’ groups shall be determined by the number of the national deputies voting for the nomination of candidates of particular deputies’ group.

The order of candidates on the Joint List of candidates, within each deputies’ group, is determined by the order of candidates determined in the deputies’ group nomination.

Article 14

The Joint List of Candidates shall be distributed to the national deputies not later than 24 hours before the time set for holding the parliamentary session in which the deputies shall be elected.

Article 15

The deputies elected to the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro shall be the candidates from the Joint List, presuming the Joint List of candidates gains majority of votes of the national deputies in the parliamentary session in which the majority of the total number of national deputies are present.

The national deputies shall vote for the Joint List by public vote, by means of electronic voting system.

Article 16

The voting shall be conducted on the record.

The Republican Electoral Commission shall prepare a report on the basis of record of voting, and submit it to the National Assembly.

The report from Paragraph 2 of this Article shall notably comprise: the total number of national deputies who voted and the number of votes of the national deputies who supported the Joint List.

The report shall be signed by the President of the Republican Electoral Commission.

Article 17

The elected deputy shall be issued by the Republican Electoral Commission with the certificate of election of deputy.

Article 18

If the candidate for deputy, or the deputies’ group, believes that violation of process was committed in the course of election of deputies, an appeal may be submitted to the Supreme Court of Serbia.

The appeal from Paragraph 1 of this Article shall be submitted within the term of 24 hours following the submission of the Republican Electoral Commission’s report to the National Assembly.

The Supreme Court of Serbia shall decide about the appeal by appropriate application of stipulations of the law regulating the process in administrative proceedings.

Ruling upon the appeal shall be made not later than 48 hours following the receipt of the complaint.

The ruling made upon the processing of appeal shall be legally valid and neither a request for extraordinary re-examination of the court ruling, nor a request for rehearing of the process, prescribed by the law regulating the process in administrative proceedings, may be filed against it.

If the Court grants the appeal, the electoral activity, or the election, shall be repeated within the term of 10 days.

Article 19

The deputy’s mandate terminates before expiration of the elected term in the following cases:

1. By resignation;

2. By legally valid court sentence to unconditional imprisonment of no less than six months;

3. By legally valid court decision on deprivation of business capacity;

4. By loss of citizenship;

5. By termination of residence on the territory of the Republic of Serbia;

6. By death of the deputy;

7. By dismissal of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro.

The date of termination of the deputy’s mandate is confirmed in the first session of the National Assembly subsequent to the receipt of information about the reasons for termination of the deputy’s mandate.

The President of the National Assembly shall immediately report the termination of the deputy’s mandate to the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro.

Article 20

If the deputy’s mandate terminates in respect with the cases stipulated in Article 19 Paragraph 1 Items 1 to 6 of this Law, the National Assembly shall elect new deputy from the respective deputies’ group or a deputy from the last constituency of the Chamber of Citizens or the Chamber of Republics of the Federal Parliament nominated by the respective deputies’ group, in accordance with the stipulations of this Law.

Article 21

Mandate of the deputy elected instead of the deputy whose mandate terminated in respect with the cases stipulated in Article 19 Paragraph 1 Items 1 to 6 of this Law shall last until the expiration of the elected term of the deputy whose mandate terminated.

Article 22

If the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro is dismissed in accordance with the Constitutional Charter before expiration of the deputies’ mandates in the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, the elections for new constituency of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro shall be conducted in accordance with the stipulations of this Law.

Mandates of deputies elected in accordance with the stipulations from the Paragraph 1 of this Article last until expiration of mandates of the deputies from the first constituency of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, whose mandates terminated.

Article 23

If the elections for national deputies are held in the Republic of Serbia before expiration of mandates of the deputies in the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, the elections for new constituency of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro shall be conducted by the process determined by the stipulations of this Law after the constituting of the National Assembly, in accordance with the Constitutional Charter.

Mandates of deputies elected in accordance with the stipulations from the Paragraph 1 of this Article last until expiration of mandates of the deputies from the first constituency of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, whose mandates terminated.

Article 24

This Law comes into effect on the day of its publication in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”.

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