NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Serbian constitutional referendum, 2006

A referendum on a proposed draft of the new Serbian constitution was held on October 28 and 29 October 2006 and has resulted in the draft constitution being approved by the Serbian electorate.^[1] The constitution is Serbia's first as an independent state since the Kingdom of Serbia's 1903 constitution. About 6.5 million people were entitled to vote in the national referendum. The new Constitution of Serbia was approved by a referendum held during two days (october 28 and 29) in Serbia. ... October 28 is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 64 days remaining. ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Anthem: BoÅ¾e Pravde [[Image:|250px|center|Location of the Kingdom of Serbia]] Capital Belgrade Largest city Belgrade Serbian Government Monarchy - King Milan (1882-1889) - King Aleksandar (1889-1903) - King Peter I (1903-1918) Proclamation March 6, 1882 Area - Total kmÂ² ([[List of countries and outlying territories by area|]]) sq...

Background

The previous Constitution of Serbia was adopted in 1990, when Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia.^[2] When he was ousted on October 5, 2000, one of pre-election promises of the new Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition government was to adopt a new constitution. That did not occur, however, as the coalition soon fell apart following disputes between the President of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Koštunica, and the Prime Minister of Serbia, Zoran Đinđić, which ended with Koštunica's Democratic Party of Serbia leaving the government of Serbia, dominated by Đinđić's Democratic Party. Slobodan MiloÅ¡eviÄ‡ Slobodan MiloÅ¡eviÄ‡ (IPA Serbian Cyrillic: Ð¡Ð»Ð¾Ð±Ð¾Ð´Ð°Ð½ ÐœÐ¸Ð»Ð¾ÑˆÐµÐ²Ð¸Ñ›) (20 August 1941 â€“ 11 March 2006) was President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia. ... Flag of the President of Serbia The President of Serbia is the head of state of the Republic of Serbia. ... The 5th October Overthrow (sometimes colloquialy called the Bulldozer Revolution) is a term refering to the series of events that occurred in 2000 in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, culminating in the downfall of Slobodan MiloÅ¡eviÄ‡s regime on October 5, 2000. ... October 5 is the 278th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (279th in Leap years). ... This article is about the year 2000. ... The Democratic Opposition of Serbia was an alliance of political parties in Serbia, formed as an alliance against the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and its leader, Slobodan Milosevic. ... The President of Yugoslavia was Yugoslavias head of state from 1953 to 1991 in SFR Yugoslavia, and from 1992 to 2003 in FR Yugoslavia. ... Dr. Vojislav KoÅ¡tunica (Serbian: Ð’Ð¾Ñ˜Ð¸ÑÐ»Ð°Ð² ÐšÐ¾ÑˆÑ‚ÑƒÐ½Ð¸Ñ†Ð°) (pronounced , born March 24, 1944, Belgrade, Serbia) is the current Prime Minister of Serbia. ... List of Prime Ministers of Serbia Current Prime Minister of Serbia is Vojislav Koštunica. ... Zoran ÄinÄ‘iÄ‡ Zoran ÄinÄ‘iÄ‡ (often Zoran Djindjic, from Serbian Cyrillic: Ð—Ð¾Ñ€Ð°Ð½ Ð‚Ð¸Ð½Ñ’Ð¸Ñ›, pronounced ) (1 August 1952 â€“ 12 March 2003) was a Serbian prime minister, mayor of Belgrade (Beograd), long-time opposition politician and a philosopher by profession. ... The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) (Ð”ÐµÐ¼Ð¾ÐºÑ€Ð°Ñ‚ÑÐºÐ° ÑÑ‚Ñ€Ð°Ð½ÐºÐ° Ð¡Ñ€Ð±Ð¸Ñ˜Ðµ / Demokratska stranka Srbije) is a center-right conservative political party in Serbia. ... The current Serbian government was formed on March 3, 2004 with the appointment of Vojislav Kostunica as the Prime Minister. ... The Democratic Party (Serbian: Ð”ÐµÐ¼Ð¾ÐºÑ€Ð°Ñ‚ÑÐºÐ° ÑÑ‚Ñ€Ð°Ð½ÐºÐ° or Demokratska stranka) is a social democratic political party in Serbia. ...

The 1990 constitution contained several anachronisms, such as a provision for "social property", which was neither privately nor state owned. Also, it significantly reduced the level of autonomy of Serbia's two provinces (Vojvodina and Kosovo), which had been introduced in the Titoist constitution of 1974. It required a two-thirds majority in parliament and a qualified majority of 50% of the electorate to be changed. Koštunica advocated that the change of constitution be in accordance with the constitution of 1990, while many other parties suggested the provisions for constitutional change be ignored, advocating elections for a Constitutional parliament. Look up Anachronism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up autonomy, autonomous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Republic of Serbia â€“Vojvodina â€“Kosovo (UN admin. ... For other uses of the name Kosovo, see Kosovo (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The parliament of Serbia is known as the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: ÐÐ°Ñ€Ð¾Ð´Ð½Ð° ÑÐºÑƒÐ¿ÑˆÑ‚Ð¸Ð½Ð° Ð ÐµÐ¿ÑƒÐ±Ð»Ð¸ÐºÐµ Ð¡Ñ€Ð±Ð¸Ñ˜Ðµ). The current Speaker of the National Assembly is Predrag MarkoviÄ‡ (G17 Plus). ... A supermajority or a qualified majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level or type of support which exceeds a simple majority in order to have effect. ...

The issue soon following Đinđić's assassination in March 2003. A general election was held in December 2003, which resulted in Koštunica becoming Prime Minister. At the same time, the Serbian Radical Party experienced a revival and became the single largest party in parliament, but it was excluded from government. The adoption of a new constitution was again delayed due to various compromises and a reluctance to tackle the problem.^{[citation needed]} Zoran ÄinÄ‘iÄ‡ Zoran ÄinÄ‘iÄ‡ (often Zoran Djindjic, from Serbian Cyrillic: Ð—Ð¾Ñ€Ð°Ð½ Ð‚Ð¸Ð½Ñ’Ð¸Ñ›, pronounced ) (1 August 1952 â€“ 12 March 2003) was a Serbian prime minister, mayor of Belgrade (Beograd), long-time opposition politician and a philosopher by profession. ... March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Serbia elects on national level a legislature. ... Look up December in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about contemporary political party. ...

The issue was revisited in 2005, when the teams selected by President Boris Tadić and the Government presented their drafts of the constitution to the public. In June 2006 Serbia became an independent state when Montenegro decided to put an end to the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro at a referendum, making a new constitution urgent. The Kosovo status talks also necessitated the quick adoption of a new constitution which would affirm Serbian desires to keep the province under its sovereignty, in accordance with international law and UN Security Council Resolution #1244. Flag of the President of Serbia The President of Serbia is the head of state of the Republic of Serbia. ... Boris TadiÄ‡ (Ð‘Ð¾Ñ€Ð¸Ñ Ð¢Ð°Ð´Ð¸Ñ›) (born 15 January 1958) is the President of Serbia. ... Motto: none Anthem: Oj, svijetla majska zoro Capital Podgorica Largest city Podgorica Serbian of the Ijekavian dialect1 Government Republic - President Filip VujanoviÄ‡ - Prime Minister Å½eljko Å turanoviÄ‡ Independence From Serbia and Montenegro - Declared June 3, 2006 - Recognised June 8, 2006 Area - Total 14,026 kmÂ² (159th) 5,414 sq mi - Water... Motto: none Anthem: Hej Sloveni Capital Belgrade (Executive and Legislative) Podgorica (Judicial) Largest city Belgrade Official language(s) Serbian1 Government President Svetozar MaroviÄ‡ Reconstituted From FRY Dissolved February 4, 2003 June 5, 2006 Area - Total 102,350 kmÂ² (105th) 39,518 sq mi - Water (%) 0. ... The Montenegrin independence referendum was a referendum on the independence of the Republic of Montenegro from Serbia and Montenegro that was held on May 21, 2006. ... The constitutional status of Kosovo has been the subject of repeated political disputes since the region was incorporated into Serbia in 1912. ... The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the organ of the United Nations charged with maintaining peace and security among nations. ...

On October 1, 2006, followed by short negotiations among the largest parliamentary parties, the Parliament of Serbia unanimously adopted the draft of the new Constitution, with 242 MPs voting in favour. The other eight were not present.^[3] The draft was result of a compromise among the key political parties. Some considered the way in which it had been drawn up to be fairly untransparent, and the result of political horse-trading.^{[citation needed]} In the preamble, a statement that "Kosovo is an autonomous province of Serbia with significant autonomy" was included. It was decided that the constitutional referendum was to be held on October 28 and October 29. October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Look up Preamble in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... October 28 is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 64 days remaining. ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

All major political parties supported the draft and began a public campaign for the referendum. The only political bloc that campaigned against the draft and advocated public boycott was a group of liberal and social-democrat parties gathered around Čedomir Jovanović's Liberal Democratic Party and Nenad Čanak's League of Vojvodina Social Democrats, as well as a number of NGOs. They objected to the lack of public discussion, argued that the claims to Kosovo in the preamble were a populist attempt to encourage the voters. Some were also dissatisfied with the level of autonomy given to Vojvodina. ^[4] The level of public support for these parties is extremely small in Serbia, with none of them able to cross the 5% support threshold required to enter parliament. There are several common types of campaign: For organized efforts, each toward specific political goals, see political campaign. ... Look up Boycott in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up liberal on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberal may refer to: Politics: Liberalism American liberalism, a political trend in the USA Political progressivism, a political ideology that is for change, often associated with liberal movements Liberty, the condition of being free from control or restrictions Liberal Party, members of... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... ÄŒedomir JovanoviÄ‡ ÄŒedomir ÄŒeda JovanoviÄ‡ (born April 13, 1971 in Belgrade) is a Serbian politician. ... Liberal Democratic Party or Democratic Liberal Party is the name of dozens of political parties around the world. ... The League of Vojvodina Social Democrats (Liga socijaldemokrata Vojvodine) is a political party in the Serbian province of Vojvodina. ... NGO is an abbreviation or code for: Non-governmental organization Nagoya Airport (IATA code) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Republic of Serbia â€“Vojvodina â€“Kosovo (UN admin. ...

The constitution

In the first article, Serbia is defined as a "state of the Serb people and all its citizens", and in the preamble Kosovo is defined as an "integral part" of Serbia with "fundamental autonomy". Also, it defines Serbia as an independent state for the first time since 1918.^[5] Among the constitution's 200 other articles are guarantees of minority rights, as well as human rights in general. It grants a form of self-rule for the province of Vojvodina. It also bans capital punishment and human cloning. In addition, in makes Cyrillic the only alphabet for official use, while making provisions for minority languages to be used at the local level.^[6] Look up Preamble in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses of the name Kosovo, see Kosovo (disambiguation). ... Motto: none Anthem: BoÅ¾e pravde (English: God of Justice) Capital Belgrade Largest city Belgrade Official language(s) Serbian1 Government Republic - President Boris TadiÄ‡ - Prime Minister Vojislav KoÅ¡tunica Formation and independence - Formation of Serbia 814 - Formation of the Serbian Empire 1345 - Independence from the Ottoman Empire July 13, 1878... Republic of Serbia â€“Vojvodina â€“Kosovo (UN admin. ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing, or previously existing, human being or growing cloned tissue from that individual. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced , also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languagesâ€”Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainianâ€”and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ...

Flag of the President of Serbia The President of Serbia is the head of state of the Republic of Serbia. ... The military of Serbia and Montenegro includes the Army of Serbia and Montenegro (Vojska Srbije i Crne Gore - VSCG), which includes ground forces with internal and border troops, naval forces, air and air defense forces, and civil defense. ... National bank of Serbia (NBS) was founded in 1884. ... BoÅ¾e pravde (God of Justice) is the official anthem of Serbia and Republika Srpska. ...

Controversy

While it was more or less universally accepted that the new constitution draft was a significant improvement over the 1990 constitution, the main objections of the public were directed at the untransparent way in which the draft was drawn up and approved by parliament. Even President Tadić acknowledged that "...I sense a certain uneasiness that we did not have a full public discussion about the constitution, due to the speed and pace at which it was seems to be adopted".^[7]

Several international law experts and independent analysts pointed out that the new article 16, which states that all international treaties must comply with the provisions of the constitution, sets up an inherent conflict, and can present an obstacle to the country's accession to European Union^[4]. International law (also called public international law to distinguish from private international law, i. ...

Another obstacle was how to ensure the constitutional limit of 50% of registered voters. Republic Election Commission (RIK) placed the total number of electors at 6,639,385—that excluded Kosovo Albanians, who have been boycotting all Serbian elections and censuses since 1990. Critics pointed that it's hypocritical to exclude Albanian voters from the balloting about the document which states that Kosovo is part of Serbia. Political analyst Vladimir Goati said that "It is pointless to state that they are not on the voter list, because they are boycotting all Serbian elections. If you recognize someone as a citizen of your country, then you cannot take away his or her right to boycott." ^[8]; however, the practice of excluding Kosovo Albanians has been adopted in several elections before. Also, opponents of the constitution pointed out that the decision of the Republic Election Commission that potential extra amount of ballots will be ignored was unlawful and outrageous. ^[9].

The referendum and the text of the new Serbian Constitution has been sharply criticized by International Crisis Group.^[10] The International Crisis Group is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy. ...

Despite the drawbacks, European Union and OSCE endorsed the proposed changes. Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman of EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, stated that "(EU) positively assesses the fact that Serbia is changing the Constitution from the time of Slobodan Milošević".^[11] The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is an international organization for security. ... Javier Solana Francisco Javier Solana Madariaga (born July 14, 1942 in Madrid, Spain) is the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union (EU) and the Western European Union (WEU). ...

Results

According to preliminary counts published by the Republic Election Commission, 51.46% of the electorate (95.9% of those voting) supported the constitution, with 50% support needed for it to come into effect. The voter turnout amounted to 53.66%. The turnout in Kosovo reached 90.1%, ^[12] Albanians in Southern Serbia and Kosovo ignored the referendum.^[1] The turnout in Vojvodina was also low (45.9%) ^[12], as several regional parties and NGOs called for a boycott, stating that the degree of the province's autonomy was insufficient. Image File history File links Referendum_Serbia_2006. ... Image File history File links Referendum_Serbia_2006. ... Men turning out to vote in the Australian 1899 Federation referendum. ... There is an Albanian minority living in Central Serbia. ...

Opponents of the referendum point to the fact that the timing of the turnout was peculiar: after the first day of voting, the turnout was only 18.03%, and on Sunday morning it started rising slowly, reaching 46% at 5PM.^{[verification needed]}. Then, in the last three hours of voting, the turnout rose to around 53%. The Speaker of the Vojvodina provincial assembly, Bojan Kostreš, accused the authorities of "forcing the new constitution". "The final voting hours were very strange, with a sudden, steep rise in turnout", he said. ^[13]. Several political analysts pointed out that similar scenarios have happened before; analyst Đorđe Vukadinović stated that "...the turnout of three to five percent per hour has been reached on several occasions in the past ten years." ^[14], while many commentators also pointed out that non-stop public messages on TV urging people to vote, the appearance of Patriarch Pavle voting on a TV broadcast, and an increase in awareness about the problems that would occur if the referendum failed, may also have played the role in increasing turnout. Bojan KostreÅ¡ (Serbian Cyrillic: Ð‘Ð¾Ñ˜Ð°Ð½ ÐšÐ¾ÑÑ‚Ñ€ÐµÑˆ) is a current president of the assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia. ... His Holiness the Archbishop of PeÄ‡, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, Serb Patriarch Pavle was born Gojko StojÄeviÄ‡ on 11 September 1914, in the village of KuÄ‡anci, near Donji Miholjac (then in Austria-Hungary, in Croatia). ...

The final results of the referendum were declared by the Republic Election Commission on 2 November 2006: voter turnout amounted to 3,645,517, or 54.91% of the electorate; the new constitution was supported by 3,521,724 voters, or 53.04% of the electorate and 96.60% of those voting; 97,497 voters (1.47% of those registered and 2.67% of those voting) were against the new constitution; 25,866 votes were invalid. ^[15]

Contents

Background

The constitution

Controversy

Results

See also

References

External links

Contents

Background var ACE_AR = {Site: '756743', Size: '300250'};

The constitution

Controversy

Results

See also

References

External links

Background