Boško Ničić

Boško Ničić (Serbian Cyrillic: Бошко Ничић; born 18 September 1960) is a politician in Serbia. He has served several terms as the mayor of Zaječar and has been a member of the National Assembly of Serbia on three occasions. He is a member of the Serbian Progressive Party.

Early life and career

Ničić was born in Bracevac, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He worked as a miner in Bor, received a degree in economics, and was a Literary Youth president.[1]

Political career

Milošević era

Ničić was active with the League of Socialist Youth in Serbia, serving on its presidency in the late 1980s. He was first elected to the Serbian parliament in the 1989 general election, the last to be held while Serbia was a one-party socialist state. One of the youngest delegates, Ničić was also one of only six representatives to vote against Slobodan Milošević's 1989 constitution, which, among other things, significantly reduced the autonomy of Vojvodina and Kosovo.[2] With the introduction of multiparty democracy, the Socialist Youth organization reconstituted itself as New Democracy. Ničić ran under this party's banner for Bor's first constituency in the 1990 general elections and was defeated by Bratislav Dunjić of Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia.[3][4] A prominent local opponent of Milošević, Ničić was subsequently held in a pre-trial detention centre for two months in 1994, on suspicion of seeking to induce certain elected officials to abuse their positions.[5][6]

New Democracy provided support for the Socialist Party in the Serbian assembly beginning in 1993, citing Milošević's professed commitment to securing a peace plan to end the Bosnian War. For the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election, New Democracy was included in the Socialist Party's electoral alliance. Ničić was included on its electoral list in the Zaječar division, although he was not selected for a mandate.[7] The alliance between the Socialist Party and New Democracy later broke down amidst the backdrop of the Kosovo War, and Ničić returned to the political opposition.

New Democracy participated in the 2000 Yugoslavian election as a member of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad coalition of several opposition parties. Ničić led the DOS's campaign staff in Zaječar.[8][9] The election was a watershed moment in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics, resulting in the fall of Milošević's government.

Since 2000

The DOS won a landslide victory in the 2000 Serbian parliamentary election, which was held after the Yugoslavian campaign. Ničić was included on the alliance's electoral list as a New Democracy representative and was selected for a mandate. (From 2000 to 2011, parliamentary mandates in Serbia were awarded at the discretion of successful parties or alliances, and it was common practice for mandates to be assigned to individual candidates out of numerical order. Ničić was given the seventy-second position on the list, although this had no formal bearing on whether or not he received a mandate.)[10]

Ničić welcomed the conviction of Ivan Nikolić, a soldier in the Yugoslav Army, in 2002. Nikolić was the first Serb soldier to be sentenced for war crimes by a Serbian court. Following the conviction, Ničić was quoted as saying, "This is the beginning of a process to prove that the Serb people did not commit crimes, but rather individuals did on their behalf. I hope the sentence will serve as proof to our public that there is no collective responsibility but only individual one."[11]

New Democracy later renamed itself the Liberals of Serbia and contested the 2003 parliamentary election with its own electoral list. Ničić was included on the list, which did not cross the electoral threshold to win representation in the assembly.[12] His second term in parliament ended in 2004. Ničić subsequently started a local political group in Zaječar called Živim za Krajinu (I Live for Krajina).[13]

Ničić become mayor of Zaječar for the first time in 2004. Two years later, he worked with mayors of neighbouring communities in Romania and Bulgaria to develop and information exchange system for combatting avian flu.[14] For the 2007 parliamentary election, he aligned his local party with the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and appeared on its electoral list; this list also failed to cross the electoral threshold to win assembly representation.[15] He supported Serbian Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolić's candidacy in the 2008 Serbian presidential election and later complained that Nikolić never acknowledged his support.[16] Nikolić was defeated by Boris Tadić of the Democratic Party.

The Živim za Krajinu party joined the United Regions of Serbia (URS) alliance in 2010.[17] He appeared in the fourth position on the URS's electoral list in the 2012 Serbian election and was elected when the list won sixteen mandates.[18] (Following a 2011 reform to Serbia's electoral law, mandates were awarded to candidates from successful lists in numerical order). His return to the legislature was brief, as he could not by this time hold a dual mandate as a mayor and a member of the assembly; he resigned the latter position on 5 September 2012.[19] He was replaced as mayor by Velimir Ognjenović in 2013.[20]

The URS became a unified political party in 2013 through a formal merger of its regional affiliates. Ničić received the seventh position on the URS's list in the 2014 parliamentary election.[21] The list failed to cross the electoral threshold, and the party subsequently dissolved. Ničić re-established the Živim za Krajinu group at the local level and aligned it with the Democratic Party (DS) for the 2016 parliamentary election. Democratic Party and its allies won sixteen mandates, and Ničić, who received the twenty-third position on their list, was not elected.[22]

Ničić was returned as mayor of Zaječar in 2017, following his party's victory in local elections.[23] Later in the year, he unexpectedly brought his local political movement into the Progressive Party.[24]

Ničić's record as mayor has sometimes been controversial. In 2010, he was criticized by the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) for mandating that directors of companies and public institutions in the city could not talk to the media without his prior concent.[25] He has also been criticized by the Independent Journalist Association of Serbia.[26] In early 2019, he strongly criticized popular protests against a perceived deterioration in the quality of life for Zaječar and Serbia generally.[27]

References
  1. Mirjana R. Milenković, "Boško Ničić: Povratak gradonačelnika", Danas, 25 April 2017, accessed 23 January 2020.
  2. Mirjana R. Milenković, "Boško Ničić: Povratak gradonačelnika", Danas, 25 April 2017, accessed 23 January 2020.
  3. 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 17 February 2017.
  4. 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), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 February 2017.
  5. Mirjana R. Milenković, "Boško Ničić: Povratak gradonačelnika", Danas, 25 April 2017, accessed 23 January 2020.
  6. "Boško Ničić, prvi čovek Zaječara", Politika, 27 September 2009, accessed 23 January 2020.
  7. The Socialist-led alliance won four out of nine seats in Zaječar. Ničić received the ninth and final position on its electoral list. This did not automatically disqualify him from receiving a mandate; during this period, one-third of the seats won by successful electoral lists were awarded numerically, with the remainder being awarded at the discretion of the sponsoring party or alliance. Ničić could hve been awarded a mandate, although ultimately he was not. See ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (18 Зајечар) Archived 2018-07-14 at the Wayback Machine and Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године Archived 2018-07-14 at the Wayback Machine, Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 1 March 2017.
  8. "Local officials make it difficult for Serbian united opposition to register," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 26 August 2000 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1417 gmt 25 Aug 00).
  9. "Opposition official says ballot box in Negotin full before voting," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 24 September 2000 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1349 gmt 24 Sep 00).
  10. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска опозиција Србије – др Војислав Коштуница (Демократска странка, Демократска странка Србије, Социјалдемократија, Грађански савез Србије, Демохришћанска странка Србије, Нова Србија, Покрет за демократску Србију, Лига социјалдемократа Војводине, Реформска демократска странка Војводине, Коалиција Војводина, Савез војвођанских Мађара, Демократска алтернатива, Демократски центар, Нова демократија, Социјалдемократска унија, Санxачка демократска партија, Лига за Шумадију, Српски покрет отпора – Демократски покрет) Archived 2018-07-19 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 March 2017. For his inclusion in the DOS parliamentary delegation, see PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 23 January 2020.
  11. "DOS officials welcome first war crimes sentence in Serbia," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 10 July 2002 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1436 gmt 10 Jul 02).
  12. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ЛИБЕРАЛИ СРБИЈЕ - ДУШАН МИХАЈЛОВИЋ) Archived 2017-07-26 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 23 January 2020.
  13. "Boško Ničić, prvi čovek Zaječara", Politika, 27 September 2009, accessed 23 January 2020.
  14. "Three Border Cities in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro to Develop Avian Flu Information Exchange System," Bulgarian News Agency, 14 February 2006.
  15. Ničić received the 135th position on the list, which was mostly alphabetical. See Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Српски покрет обнове - Вук Драшковић) Archived 2018-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 5 April 2017.
  16. Mirjana R. Milenković, "Boško Ničić: Povratak gradonačelnika", Danas, 25 April 2017, accessed 23 January 2020.
  17. "President lends support to newly founded United Regions of Serbia," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 17 May 2010 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 1205gmt 16 May 10.
  18. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. маj 2012. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (УЈЕДИЊЕНИ РЕГИОНИ СРБИЈЕ - МЛАЂАН ДИНКИЋ) Archived 2017-09-11 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 5 April 2017.
  19. 31 May 2012 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 23 January 2020.
  20. "Zaječar: Velimir Ognjenović iz SNS novi gradonačelnik", Novosti, 21 August 2013, accessed 23 January 2020.
  21. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године; ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (УЈЕДИЊЕНИ РЕГИОНИ СРБИЈЕ - МЛАЂАН ДИНКИЋ) Archived 2018-05-06 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 July 2017.
  22. Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (ЗА ПРАВЕДНУ СРБИЈУ – ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА (НОВА, ДСХВ, ЗЗС)) Archived 2018-04-27 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 March 2017.
  23. "GRADONAČELNIK Boško Ničić ponovo na čelu Zaječara", Blic (Source: N1), 3 June 2017, accessed 23 January 2020.
  24. "PRELETEO Boško Ničić novi član SNS", Blic (Source: Tanjug), 9 September 2017, accessed 23 January 2020.
  25. "SEEMO ALARMED AT LIMITATION ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION IMPOSED BY MAYOR IN SERBIAN CITY OF ZAJECAR," IPR Strategic Information Database, 12 August 2010.
  26. NUNS ponovo uputio javnu kritiku gradonačelniku Zaječara zbog uvredljivog ponašanja prema novinarima, Danas, 25 September 2019, accessed 23 January 2020.
  27. "Gradonačelnik Zaječara obećao žestok odgovor protestima", Danas, 20 January 2019, accessed 23 January 2020.
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