Milan Nikitović

Milan Nikitović (Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Никитовић; 1946 – 2001) was a Serbian engineer, aphorist, and politician. He was the mayor of Užice from 1996 to 2000 and served in the Serbian parliament from 1997 to 2001. Nikitović was a member of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO).

Early life and career

Nikitović was born in Užice, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He completed high school in the city, graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and returned to Užice to work at the electric company, where he managed the technical sector. An active satirist, he published a book of aphorisms entitled Život u Svetlarniku (English: Life in a Skylight) in 1995. A follow-up work, simply called Svetlarnik (English: Skylight), was published posthumously in 2002.[1][2]

Politician

Serbian political life in the 1990s was dominated by the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milošević, leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).

The SPO contested the 1996 Serbian local elections as part of the opposition Zajedno (English: Together) coalition, which also included the Democratic Party (DS) and the Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS). The coalition won majority victories in several of Serbia's largest cities, including Užice, where it won thirty-eight out of sixty-seven seats in the city assembly.[3] Nikitović was elected as a Zajedno candidate. When the assembly convened on 14 December 1996, he was chosen as its president, a position that was then equivalent to mayor; Miroslav Martić, a member of the DS, was chosen as deputy mayor.[4] Although the Zajedno coalition broke apart at the republic level in mid-1997, it remained intact in Užice for the term that followed.

In 1997, Nikitović ended the practice of holding Užice's municipal day on 24 September (to commemorate the Republic of Užice) and shifted the date to 9 October. He contended that the previous date was coloured by ideology, saying, "when the Užice Republic was formed, it was not fascists who left Užice, but members of the Fatherland Army of Yugoslavia."[5]

Nikitović appeared in the lead position on the SPO's electoral list for the Užice division in the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election and was elected when the list won two seats.[6][7] (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 at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions.[8] Nikitović, as the list leader, was automatically elected.) The SPO won forty-five seats overall and served in opposition to the SPS-led administration for the term that followed.[a]

In September 1998, Nikitović signed an agreement with Energogas on the construction of a gas pipeline from Preljina to Užice. Under the terms of the agreement, the municipality was to finance forty-five per cent of the construction and mechanical works.[9]

The Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a new alliance of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's continued rule, was formed in 2000; the SPO was not included in the alliance. DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, and Milošević subsequently fell from power on 5 October 2000. In the concurrent Yugoslavian parliamentary election, Nikitović appeared in the twelfth position on the SPO's list for the upper house, the Chamber of Republics.[10] The SPO won only one seat in this body, which was automatically assigned to its lead candidate, the architect Spasoje Krunić.[11][12]

The DOS also won a majority victory in Užice in the 2000 Serbian local elections, which took place concurrently with the federal vote.[13] Nikitović was personally defeated in his bid for re-election to the city assembly, and his mayoral term ended when the new assembly convened in October.[14]

Serbia's government also fell after Milošević's defeat in the Yugoslavian election, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was held in December 2000. Prior to the vote, Serbia's electoral laws were reformed such that the entire country became a single at-large electoral district and all mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions, irrespective of numerical order.[15] Nikitović appeared in the 125th position on the SPO's electoral list.[16] The list did not cross the electoral threshold for assembly representation, and his parliamentary term ended when the new assembly convened in January 2001.

Death

Nikitović died unexpectedly in Užice later in 2001.[17]

Electoral record

Local (Užice)

2009 Užice local election: Division 40 (Rosulje 5)
CandidatePartyVotes%
Zoran ĐikanovićDemocratic Opposition of Serbia–Dr. Vojislav Koštunicaelected
Milovan ĆorovićSocialist Party of Serbia–Yugoslav Left–Slobodan Milošević
(Affiliation: Socialist Party of Serbia)[18]		defeated
Milan Nikitović (incumbent)Serbian Renewal Movementdefeated
Goran StanićSerbian Radical Partydefeated
Total
Source: [19][20] Ćorović, Nikitović, and Stanić are listed alphabetically.

Notes

  1. ↑ In early 1999, the SPO briefly joined a coalition government led by the Socialist Party in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which comprised the republics of Serbia and Montenegro. It did not join the government at the republic level, although its opposition to the SPS was obviously more muted in this period.

References

  1. ↑ Predrag Kovačević, "Добри човек, афористичар, председник ужичке општине", uzicanstveno.rs, 15 August 2018, accessed 25 May 2026.
  2. ↑ Milan Nikotović, "Svetlarnik" (catalogue listing), plus.cobiss.net, accessed 25 May 2026.
  3. ↑ Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, pp. 17, 77.
  4. ↑ "MILAN NIKITOVIC NOVI PREDSEDNIK SKUPSTINE OPSTINE UZICE", Užice na internetu, 17 December 1996, accessed 24 May 2026.
  5. ↑ Borba, 17 October 1997, p. 9.
  6. ↑ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (19 Ужице), Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.
  7. ↑ 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 (Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997.) године, Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.
  8. ↑ Guide to the Early Election Archived 2017-08-03 at the Wayback Machine, Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017.
  9. ↑ Borba, 5 September 1998, p. 3.
  10. ↑ Srpska reč, Number 262 (31 August 2000), p. 7.
  11. ↑ ИЗБОРИ 2000: ВЕЋЕ РЕПУБЛИКА И ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (2000), p. 16.
  12. ↑ "Ko su poslanici" Archived 5 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Vreme, 28 September 2000, accessed 10 November 2021.
  13. ↑ Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 64.
  14. ↑ KONSTITUISANA SKUPSTINA OPSTINE UZICE, Užice na internetu, 15 October 2000, accessed 7 May 2026.
  15. ↑ 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, Archived 2021-06-03 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 6 June 2021.
  16. ↑ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2 "Српски покрет обнове – Вук Драшковић" – Вук Драшковић), Archived 2023-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.
  17. ↑ Predrag Kovačević, "Добри човек, афористичар, председник ужичке општине", uzicanstveno.rs, 15 August 2018, accessed 25 May 2026.
  18. ↑ "IZBORNA KONFERENCIJA UZICKIH SOCIJALISTA", Užice na internetu, 30 January 2000, accessed 25 May 2026.
  19. ↑ IZBORI 2000: LISTA KANDIDATA ZA ODBORNIKE SKUPŠTINE OPŠTINE UŽICE, uzice.net, accessed 8 May 2026.
  20. ↑ IZBORI 2000: NOVOIZABRANI ODBORNICI SKUPŠTINE OPŠTINE UŽICE, uzice.net, accessed 8 May 2026.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.