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Radovan Radović (politician)

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Radovan Radović (Serbian Cyrillic: Радован Радовић; born 18 September 1951), commonly known as Raka, is a retired politician in Serbia. He served several terms in the Serbian and Yugoslavian parliaments between 1991 and 1997 and was the mayor of Trstenik from 2004 to 2008. For many years a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS), he later founded his own Our Home Serbia (Naš dom Srbija, NDS) party and has been a member of the Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska napredna stranka, SNS) since 2013.

Early life and career

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Radović was born in Kamenjača in the municipality of Trstenik, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He attended higher technical and mechanical school in Trstenik and was later a student at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, although he did not graduate. He returned to the Trstenik area after leaving university and worked for a time as director of waterworks maintenance at Prva Petoletka. In 1978, he left this position in order to focus on farming.[1] He now operates a fruit and vegetable canning company.[2]

Prior to 1990, Radović was a member of the League of Communists of Serbia.[3]

Politician

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Parliamentarian (1991–97)

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Radović was first elected to the National Assembly of Serbia in the 1990 parliamentary election, winning in Trstenik's first division. At the time, he was known as a loyalist supporter of SPS leader Slobodan Milošević. The Socialists won a majority victory, and Radović served as a supporter of the administration.

In April 1992, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro created a new federation which they called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The new federal entity had a bicameral parliament, and the members of its upper house (the Chamber of Republics) were nominated by the republican parliaments. Radović was included in Serbia's first delegation to this body in May 1992.[4] He also continued serving in the Serbian assembly.

Serbia introduced a system of proportional representation for republic-level elections in 1992. Radović was given the ninth position on the SPS's electoral list in Kragujevac for the December 1992 parliamentary election and was awarded a mandate when the list won eleven seats.[5][6] (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds would be distributed amongst other candidates at the discretion of sponsoring parties or coalitions. Radović did not receive an automatic mandate, though he was included in the SPS's delegation all the same.)[7] He was also selected for a second term in the Chamber of Republics when the new assembly convened in early 1993.[8] The Socialists won a minority victory in 1992 and initially governed in an informal alliance with the far-right Serbian Radical Party (Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS).

This SPS–SRS alliance broke down in mid-1993, and another parliamentary election was held in December of that year. Radović received the fifth position on the SPS's list in Kragujevac and was again granted a mandate when the list won twelve seats.[9][10] The Socialists increased their seat total in this election and afterward formed a new administration with New Democracy (Nova Demokratija, ND). Radović once again served as a government supporter, although he was not re-appointed to the federal parliament.

In parliament, Radović became a minor celebrity for his rustic mannerisms and his rough, often crude, manner of debating. His speeches soon became known as theatrical spectacles, and several of his comments were quoted in Serbian papers for their outrageous quality. In one particularly infamous instance, he invited a female assembly delegate to his farm to measure the length of his corncob. On another occasion, he said that monkeys failed to evolve because they ate bananas instead of more nutritious apples. Radical Party delegate Stevo Dragišić said of Radović, "This man does not fall into the category of human being, but rather of fauna"; it was reported that Radović afterward spat at Dragišić in the assembly hallway.[11][12]

Radović was appointed as acting director of Radio Television of Serbia's newly created Trstenik studio in 1995.[13] He was removed after the opposition's victory in the municipality in the 1996 Serbian local elections; after leaving office, he re-entered the studios surreptitiously and left with the station van, a high-range transmitter, and some equipment. He claimed he had personally signed for the materials in question; unsurprisingly, the station disagreed and demanded their return.[14]

When Slobodan Milošević was chosen as president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in July 1997, Radović and fellow Socialist parliamentarian Dobrivoje Budimirović sang a duet in praise of Milošević in the national assembly, with the words, "Slobodane, Slobodane ti si ko komunista, volimo te, volimo te ko Isusa Hrista." (English: "Slobodan, Slobodan, you are a communist. We love you, we love you like Jesus Christ.")[15]

He was excluded from the SPS's electoral list in the 1997 parliamentary election, apparently because he opposed the party's alliance with the Yugoslav Left (Jugoslovenska Levica, JUL) led by Milošević's wife Mirjana Marković.[16] His final term in parliament ended that year.

Since 1997

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Radović was excluded from the SPS entirely by its Trstenik branch in 1999, a decision he did not accept as valid.[17] He later became vice-president of a new party called the Workers' Movement; in the 2000 Yugoslavian parliamentary election, he was the party's list bearer and ran as its lead candidate in Kraljevo.[18][19] The party did not win any seats.[20]

The Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Demokratska opozicija Srbije, DOS) defeated the SPS in the 2000 Yugoslavian election, an event that brought about large-scale changes in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics. A new Serbian parliamentary election was held later in the year; prior to the vote, Serbia's electoral system was reformed such that the entire country became 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. Radović joined the newly formed Democratic Socialist Party (Demokratska Socijalistička Partija, DSP) and appeared in the eighth position on its list.[21][22] The party did not cross the electoral threshold for assembly representation.

Radović later started a new party called Our Home Serbia.[23] He was announced as the party's candidate in the September–October 2002 Serbian presidential election, although he withdrew prior to the vote.[24] Our Home Serbia contested the 2003 parliamentary election as part of the For National Unity alliance, and Radović appeared in the fifth position on its list.[25][26] The list did not cross the electoral threshold.

He last sought election to the national assembly in the 2007 parliamentary election, when he was granted a position on a coalition list of the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia (Partija ujedinjenih penzionera Srbije, PUPS) and the Social Democratic Party (Socijaldemokratska partija, SDP).[27] This list, too, did not cross the threshold.

He called for creating a club for former parliamentarians in 2018.[28]

Municipal politics

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Serbia briefly introduced the direct election of mayors in the 2004 Serbian local elections, and Radović was elected as mayor of Trstenik in the second round of voting. He served in office for a single term. Following the 2008 local elections, he became an advisor to his successor, Stevan Đaković of the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS). He was removed from this position in 2010 after representing the municipality in the media without authorization.[29]

Serbia's electoral laws were again reformed in 2011, such that mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order. Radović contested the 2012 local elections at the head of his own Movement for the Municipality of Trstenik list, which narrowly missed crossing the electoral threshold.[30]

In 2013, Radović joined the Serbian Progressive Party.[31] He appeared in the forty-first position (out of forty-nine) on the party's list in Trstenik in the 2016 local elections.[32] This appears to have been a largely nominal candidacy; election from this position was unlikely, and he was not elected when the list won nineteen seats.[33]

Electoral record

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Municipal (Trstenik)

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2004 Municipality of Trstenik local election
Mayor of Trstenik (second round results)
CandidatePartyVotes%
Radovan RadovićCitizens' Group: Our Home Serbia9,05365.39
Goran MiodragovićDemocratic Party4,79134.61
Total13,844100.00
Source: [34][35]

National Assembly of Serbia

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1990 Serbian parliamentary election: Trstenik I
CandidateParty
Miroslav Č. BinićCitizens' Group
Dušan GlišićCitizens' Group
Nikola JovanovićSerbian Renewal Movement
Petar MarinkovićPeople's Radical Party
Ljubodrag MatićParty of the Union of Serbian Peasants
Momčilo MilićevićCitizens' Group
Sonja J. MirićDemocratic Party
Ljubodrag ObradovićCitizens' Group
Radovan Radović (***WINNER***)Socialist Party of Serbia
Saša RaškovićCitizens' Group
Total
Source: [36]

References

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  1. ^ "Radovan Radović Raka", Glas javnosti, 13 September 2000, accessed 13 August 2022.
  2. ^ "ОСТАВИО ПОЛИТИКУ ПА САД КИСЕЛИ КРАСТАВЦЕ: Рака Радовић (70) већ пет година у пензији у родној Почековини конзервира воће и поврће", Novosti, 25 November 2021, accessed 14 August 2022.
  3. ^ Radovan Radović Raka, istinomer.rs, accessed 14 August 2022.
  4. ^ Službeni glasnik (Republike Srbije), Volume 48 Number 34 (27 May 1992), p. 2225.
  5. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3 Крагујевац) and Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 30 July 2021.
  6. ^ Službeni Glasnik (Republike Srbije), 25 January 1993 (Volume 49 Number 7), p. 194.
  7. ^ Guide to the Early Election Archived 2022-01-16 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.
  8. ^ Dušan Bogdanović and Biljana Kovačević Vučo, Institutions Abused: Who Was Who in Serbia, 1987–2000, (Belgrade: Biljana Kovačević Vučo Fund), 2011, pp. 232-233.
  9. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3 Крагујевац) and Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 30 July 2021.
  10. ^ Službeni Glasnik (Republike Srbije), Volume 50 Number 11 (25 January 1994), p. 194.
  11. ^ "Radovan Radović Raka", Glas javnosti, 13 September 2000, accessed 13 August 2022.
  12. ^ "Acting Director of Radio-Television Serbia's Trstenik Studio", Vreme, 9 January 1995, accessed 13 August 2022.
  13. ^ "Acting Director of Radio-Television Serbia's Trstenik Studio", Vreme, 9 January 1995, accessed 13 August 2022.
  14. ^ George Jahn, "Independent television station challenges mighty Serbian TV," Associated Press Newswires, 22 January 1997.
  15. ^ "Slavlje iza zatvorenih vrata u Skupstini Srbije", Naša borba, 16 July 1997, accessed 26 August 2022.
  16. ^ "Radovan Radović Raka", Glas javnosti, 13 September 2000, accessed 13 August 2022.
  17. ^ Ode Raka, NIN, 23 December 1999, accessed 13 August 2022.
  18. ^ Srboljub Bogdanović, "Idu laste, ostaju svrake", NIN, 14 September 2000, accessed 13 August 2022.
  19. ^ "Radovan Radović Raka", Glas javnosti, 13 September 2000, accessed 13 August 2022.
  20. ^ ИЗБОРИ 2000: ВЕЋЕ РЕПУБЛИКА И ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (2000), p. 57.
  21. ^ "Radović kod Vučelića", Glas javnosti, 3 December 2000, accessed 13 August 2000.
  22. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Демократска социјалистичка партија – Милорад Вучелић), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 2 July 2021.
  23. ^ "Petsto stranaka otišlo u istoriju", Danas, 20 May 2010, accessed 14 August 2020.
  24. ^ "Branko Kitanovic predsednicki kandidat NKPJ", B92, 18 August 2002, accessed 14 August 2022.
  25. ^ "Agency details new alliances on Serbian political scene ahead of 28 December election," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 27 November 2003.
  26. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (8. "ЗА НАРОДНО ЈЕДИНСТВО" проф. БОРИСЛАВ ПЕЛЕВИЋ И МАРИЈАН РИСТИЧЕВИЋ (Странка српског јединства, Народна сељачка странка, Народна странка, Наш дом Србија и Српска странка), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 August 2022.
  27. ^ Radović appeared in the 175th position. See Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (9 Партија уједињених пензионера Србије (ПУПС) - Др Јован Кркобабић и Социјалдемократска партија (СДП) - Др Небојша Човић), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 10 July 2021.
  28. ^ "Bidža i Raka traže klub veterana", Novosti, 15 May 2018, accessed 14 August 2022.
  29. ^ Radovan Radović Raka, istinomer.rs, accessed 14 August 2022.
  30. ^ REZULTATI IZBORA 2012 (Trstenik - Rezultati izbora 2012.), Archived 2012-07-28 at the Wayback Machine, Center for Free Elections and Democracy, accessed 20 December 2021; ЛОКАЛНИ ИЗБОРИ 2012., Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; pp. 13, 71.
  31. ^ "Radovan Raka Radović ušao u SNS", Novosti, 23 November 2013, accessed 14 August 2022.
  32. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Trstenik), 2016 Volume 3 (13 April 2016), p. 4.
  33. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Trstenik), 2016 Number 5, pp. 1-2.
  34. ^ ЛОКАЛНИ ИЗБОРИ: Председници општина и градова, изабрани на локалним изборима, 2004., "REPUBLICKI ZAVOD ZA STATISTIKU - Republike Srbije". Archived from the original on 2010-10-03. Retrieved 2022-05-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 3 October 2010, accessed 12 July 2021; Lokalni Izbori u Srbiji 2004, "Rezultati izbora po opstinama". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2021-07-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Center for Free Elections and Democracy, 29 July 2007, accessed 25 July 2021.
  35. ^ "Povratak već otpisanih u predsedničke fotelje", Glas javnosti, 5 October 2004, accessed 14 August 2022.
  36. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године (Листе кандидата за народне посланике Народне скупштине Републике Србије, по изборним јединицама), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 9 April 2022; Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 9 April 2022.
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