Goran Ćirić

Goran Ćirić
Горан Ћирић
Goran Ćirić in "15 minuta", made by Južne vesti in 18.03.2016
Mayor of Niš
In office
10 November 2000 – 9 October 2004
Preceded byZoran Živković
Succeeded bySmiljko Kostić
Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia
In office
16 April 2014 – 3 August 2020
In office
22 January 2001 – 27 January 2004
Personal details
Born (1960-07-25) 25 July 1960 (age 64)
Niš, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Political partyDS (1992–2020)
Alma materUniversity of Niš

Goran Ćirić (Serbian Cyrillic: Горан Ћирић; born 25 July 1960) is a Serbian politician and administrator. He was the mayor of Niš from 2000 to 2004 and has served three terms in the Serbian parliament. Ćirić was a member of the Democratic Party (DS) during his time as an elected official, although he left the party in 2020.

Early life and career

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Ćirić was born in Niš, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He graduated from the University of Niš Faculty of Electronics in 1984 and worked as a technical support engineer for the company El Honeywell from 1985 to 1991, implementing information technology projects throughout major firms in Yugoslavia. He ran his own company from 1991 to 1997, overseeing a team that designed integrated information systems.[1]

Politician

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Early years (1992–2000)

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Ćirić joined the Democratic Party in 1992 and became part of its main board in 1996. The party contested the 1996 Serbian local elections as part of Zajedno, a coalition of parties opposed to the governing Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) led by Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. These elections, marked by controversy and protests, ultimately led to victories for Zajedno in several major Serbian cities, including Niš.[2] Ćirić was elected to the Niš city assembly and served on its executive board for the term that followed; he was also president of the DS's city board for Niš in the same period.[3][4][5] Zoran Živković, also a member of the Democratic Party, served as president of the assembly, a position that was at the time equivalent to mayor.

In late 1999, Ćirić helped to organize protests in Niš against Milošević's continued rule.[6]

The Democratic Party became part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a successor to the Zajedno coalition, in 2000. DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, which led to Milošević's fall from power and brought about widespread changes in the political culture of Serbia and Yugoslavia. The DOS also won landslide victories in several cities in the concurrent 2000 Serbian local elections; in Niš, the alliance won eighty-five out of ninety-five seats.[7] Ćirić was re-elected to the assembly for the city's forty-eighth division and was appointed afterward as a vice-president of the executive board, overseeing the department of public services. Živković was appointed to another term as mayor.[8][9]

Mayor of Niš and parliamentarian (2000–04)

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Živković's second term as mayor of Niš proved to be brief; he was appointed to a ministerial position in the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in late 2000 and so resigned from the mayoral office. Ćiric was chosen as his successor on 10 November 2000. In December 2000, he hosted a meeting in Niš between Yugoslavian president Koštunica and Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov.[10]

The Serbian government 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 electoral division and all mandates were assigned to candidates on successful electoral lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions, irrespective of numerical order.[11] Ćirić appeared in the forty-fourth position on the DOS list and was awarded a mandate after the list won a landslide majority with 176 out of 250 seats.[12] He took his seat when the new assembly convened in January 2001.[13]

Between 2001 and 2002, Ćirić and his Bulgarian counterparts sought to construct a highway from Niš to Sofia with funding from the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.[14] This project was indefinitely postponed in 2002 when the European Investment Bank withheld funding, stating that demand for the highway was insufficient and that the project would not quickly recoup its initial losses.[15] This notwithstanding, Ćirić and the mayors of Sofia and Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, signed an agreement to form a euroregion centred around their communities in 2003.[16]

Ćirić served two terms as chair of the Permanent Conference of the Cities and Municipalities in Yugoslavia during his time as mayor. In early 2002, he signed an accord with a representative of the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria for greater cooperation between the local governments of both countries.[17]

Čirić resigned his seat in the national assembly on 12 June 2002, but his resignation was later overturned on technical grounds and his mandate restored.[18][19] He continued to serve for the remainder of the parliamentary term.[20]

In early 2003, Ćirić reached an agreement with Radio Television of Serbia for Radio Niš to be privatized after one year of transitional funding.[21]

The DOS had dissolved by the time of the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election, and the DS contested the vote at the head of its own alliance. Ćirić received the sixty-fifth position its list and did not receive a new mandate when the list won thirty-seven seats.[22][23][24] His term ended when the new assembly convened in early 2004.

In what proved to be a short-lived experiment, the Serbian government introduced the direct election of mayors in the 2004 Serbian local elections. Ćirić sought re-election in Niš but was defeated in the second round by Smiljko Kostić, who was endorsed by New Serbia (NS).[25]

Administrator

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The Serbian government appointed Ćirić as managing director of PTT Saobraćaja Srbija on 2 November 2007.[26] In 2009, he announced that the organization would become a closed shareholding company in state ownership.[27] He stood down as director in 2012, following a change in government that saw the Democratic Party move into opposition.[28]

Ćirić was elected as a deputy chair of the Democratic Party in November 2012.[29]

Return to parliament

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Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that all parliamentary mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order.[30] Ćirić received the eleventh position on the Democratic Party's list in the 2014 Serbian parliamentary election and returned to the assembly after a ten-year absence when the list won nineteen mandates.[31] The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its allies won a majority government, and the DS continued to serve in opposition. In his second term, Ćirić was a member of the agriculture committee[a] and the spatial planning committee,[b] a deputy member of the economy committee,[c] the leader of Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with Japan, and a member of the friendship groups with Germany, Israel, Norway, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.[32]

He was promoted to the seventh position on the DS's list in the 2016 parliamentary election and was re-elected when the list won sixteen seats.[33] The SNS and its allies won another majority government, and the DS again served in opposition. In October 2016, Ćirić replaced Bojan Pajtić as leader of the DS parliamentary group.[34] During this term, he was also a member of the finance committee,[d] the administrative committee,[e] and the spatial planning committee; again the leader of Serbia's friendship group with Japan; and a member of the friendship groups with Slovenia and the United Kingdom.[35] The Democratic Party began boycotting the national assembly in early 2019, against the backdrop of significant public protests against Serbia's SNS-led government.

Ćirić had an extremely fraught relationship with Zoran Lutovac, who became leader of the DS in 2018. In May 2020, Ćirić said that he respected the party's decision to boycott the upcoming parliamentary election on the grounds that the SNS government was undermining the country's democratic institutions, but he also accused the leadership of inactivity during a time of crisis, saying that little was being done to build the party's organization and take its message to the broader public. He rejected the suggestion that he and fellow party dissidents were tacitly legitimating the SNS government by their actions.[36]

The DS fulfilled its pledge to boycott the 2020 parliamentary election, and Ćirić's tenure in the assembly came to an end in that year. In September 2020, he was one of many high-profile figures to be expelled from the party.[37] He has not sought a return to political life since this time.

Honours

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Electoral record

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Local (City of Niš)

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2004 City of Niš local election: Mayor of Niš
CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Smiljko KostićPolitical Organization for Democratic Change "New Serbia"–Velimir Ilić15,11523.6838,29163.63
Goran Ćirić (incumbent)Democratic Party–Boris Tadić18,64029.2121,88736.37
Dragoljub StamenkovićSerbian Radical Party–Tomislav Nikolić8,22012.88
Branislav JovanovićG17 Plus6,77410.61
Goran IlićDemocratic Party of Serbia–Vojislav Koštunica5,3568.39
Zoran BojanićStrength of Serbia Movement–Bogoljub Karić4,6857.34
Vlastimir ĐokićSocialist Party of Serbia–Tomislav Jovanović3,6925.78
two other candidates[39]1,3422.10
Total63,824100.0060,178100.00
Valid votes63,82497.04
Invalid/blank votes1,9462.96
Total votes65,770100.00
Registered voters/turnout220,59529.81
Source: [40]
2000 Niš city election: Niš Division 48
CandidateParty
Goran Ćirić (incumbent) (***WINNER***)Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Affiliation: Democratic Party)
Mile PešicSerbian Radical Party
other candidates
Total
Source: [41][42]

Notes

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  1. ^ Formally known as the Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management Committee.
  2. ^ Formally known as the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure, and Telecommunications.
  3. ^ Formally known as the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism, and Energy.
  4. ^ Formally known as the Committee on Finance, State Budget, and Control of Public Spending
  5. ^ Formally known as the Committee on Administrative, Budgetary, Mandate, and Immunity Issues.

References

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  1. ^ GORAN ĆIRIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 21 August 2017.
  2. ^ Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, pp. 82-83.
  3. ^ Списак одборника, Archived 1999-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, City of Niš, accessed 15 November 2024.
  4. ^ Чланови Извршног одбора, Archived 1999-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, City of Niš, accessed 15 November 2024.
  5. ^ GORAN ĆIRIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 21 August 2017.
  6. ^ "Serbian opposition alliance to hold rally in southeastern town on 18th August," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European - Political, 12 August 1999 (Source: Pancevo Radio in Serbo-Croat 1900 gmt 12 Aug 99); "Some 2,000 rally in major southern Serbian town," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European - Political, 26 October 1999 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1811 gmt 26 Oct 99).
  7. ^ Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 122.
  8. ^ Списак одборника, Archived 2001-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, City of Niš, accessed 15 November 2024.
  9. ^ КОНСТИТУИСАНА ЈЕ СКУПШТИНА ГРАДА НИША, Archived 2000-12-11 at the Wayback Machine, Daily News Service of the City of Niš, accessed 4 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Yugoslav president arrives in Nis for meeting with Bulgarian counterpart," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European - Political, 20 December 2000 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1239 gmt 20 Dec 00).
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (4 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 2023-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.
  13. ^ PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, 11 January 2001, accessed 18 July 2021.
  14. ^ Lili Granitska, "FINANCING FOR CONSTRUCTION OF SOFIA-NIS HIGHWAY TO BE SOUGHT FROM THE STABILITY PACT," Bulgarian News Agency, 27 September 2001.
  15. ^ Lili Granitska, "Sofia-Nis Motorway Project Put Off Indefinitely," Bulgarian News Agency, 1 March 2002.
  16. ^ "Sofia, Skopje, Nis to Create Euro-Region in Fall," Bulgarian News Agency, 22 February 2002; "Bulgaria, Macedonia, FR Yugoslavia to Establish Euroregion of Cooperation," Bulgarian News Agency, 26 October 2002; "Mayors of Sofia, Nis, Skopje Sign Agreement on Euro-Balkan Region's Status," Bulgarian News Agency, 21 September 2003.
  17. ^ "Bulgarian, Yugoslav Municipality Associations Sign Cooperation Agreement," Bulgarian News Agency, 15 February 2002.
  18. ^ DRUGO VANREDNO ZASEDANjE, 12.06.2002., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 15 November 2024.
  19. ^ Milan Milošević, "https://vreme.com/vreme/mrtve-duse-zivih-poslanika/", Vreme, 7 August 2002, accessed 15 November 2024.
  20. ^ See Детаљи о народном посланику: ЋИРИЋ, ГОРАН, Archived 2003-08-16 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 15 November 2024.
  21. ^ "Mayor says city to finance Nis radio for one year before its sale," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 23 February 2003 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1303 gmt 23 Feb 03).
  22. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (5. ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА – БОРИС ТАДИЋ), Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.
  23. ^ "Podrška neoročenoj vladi", Archived 2022-06-25 at the Wayback Machine, Glas javnosti, 15 January 2004, accessed 13 March 2024.
  24. ^ 27 January 2004 legislature, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 21 August 2017.
  25. ^ "Serbian local polls: NGO says DS winning in Belgrade, NS in Nis, SRS in Novi Sad," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 3 October 2004 (Source: Radio B92, Belgrade, in Serbian 1925 gmt 3 Oct 04).
  26. ^ "Serbian government appoints directors of public companies," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 2 November 2007.
  27. ^ "Tandem Financial - Serbian Daily Report - Oct 12, 2009," South East Europe News Digest, 13 October 2009.
  28. ^ Goran Ćirić, www.istinomer.rs, accessed 30 March 2017.
  29. ^ "New leader vows to reform opposition party, draft plan for Serbia's recovery," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 26 November 2012 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 26 Nov 12).
  30. ^ Law on the Election of Members of the Parliament (2000, as amended 2011) (Articles 88 & 92) made available via LegislationOnline, Archived 2021-06-03 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 6 June 2021.
  31. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (8 СА ДЕМОКРАТСКОМ СТРАНКОМ ЗА ДЕМОКРАТСКУ СРБИЈУ), Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.
  32. ^ GORAN ĆIRIĆ, Archived 2014-09-13 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 15 November 2024.
  33. ^ Избори за народне посланике 2016. године – Изборне листе (2 ЗА ПРАВЕДНУ СРБИЈУ – ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА (НОВА, ДСХВ, ЗЗС)), Archived 2021-04-26 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.
  34. ^ "Ćirić ZAMENIO PAJTIĆA u Skupštini Srbije, na čelu poslanika DS", Blic, 3 October 2016, accessed 30 March 2017.
  35. ^ GORAN CIRIC, Archived 2020-01-23 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 15 November 2024.
  36. ^ Mirjana R. Milenković, "Goran Ćirić: Niko u DS ne radi za Vučića", Danas, 16 May 2020, accessed 15 November 2024.
  37. ^ "Izbačena jos 53 člana iz Demokratske stranke", Danas, 30 September 2020, accessed 18 May 2021.
  38. ^ "令和3年春の外国人叙勲 受章者名簿" (PDF). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  39. ^ The two other candidates were Ljubivoje Slavković (Citizens' Group: For Niš) and Sima Radulović (Citizens' Group: League for Niš). The Serbian government's official report on the 2004 local elections does not break down the individual vote totals received by Slavković and Radulović. The City of Niš's website provided the following preliminary totals: Slaković 688 votes (1.13%), Radulović 557 votes (0.92%).
  40. ^ ЛОКАЛНИ ИЗБОРИ 2004, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2004-11-22. Retrieved 2021-12-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), City of Niš, 22 November 2004, accessed 23 December 2021 [preliminary results for the first round]; Lokalni Izbori – Republika Srbija; Lokalni Izbori 2004; Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; pp. 230 [final results for the first round].
  41. ^ Списак одборника, Archived 2001-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, City of Niš, accessed 15 November 2024.
  42. ^ Velika Srbija [Serbian Radical Party publication], Volume 11 Number 1201 (September 2000), p. 30.
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