The National Assembly (Serbian: Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, pronounced [nǎːrodnaː skûpʃtina]) is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are proportionally elected to four-year terms by secret ballot. The assembly elects a president (speaker) who presides over the sessions.[1]
The National Assembly exercises supreme legislative power. It adopts and amends the Constitution, elects Government, appoints the Governor of the National Bank of Serbia and other state officials. All decisions are made by majority vote of deputies at the session at which a majority of deputies are present, except for amending the Constitution, when a two-thirds majority is needed.[2]
The assembly convenes in the House of the National Assembly in Belgrade.[2]
From the beginning of the 19th century, National Assembly sessions were called by Serbian monarchs. Sessions were also held during the First and Second Serbian uprising.[3] The members were not elected, but rather appointed by the monarch, and sessions were usually held in open space, in which a couple of thousand members could participate.[‡ 1] One of the major groups at this point of time, were the conservative Defenders of the Constitution,[4] who were initially allied with the Karađorđević dynasty.[5] After the overthrow of Obrenović dynasty in 1842, they held a majority in the parliament.[6]
Ilija Garašanin, who was one of the members of the conservative group, called for the adoption of a law that would officially form the National Assembly.[6] This was done in December 1858, when the Saint Andrew's Day Assembly was established.[7] Its first name was also adopted at the assembly, which was the "Serbian National Assembly".[‡ 1] After the adoption, sessions were initially held every three years, although this was later changed over the time, and later sessions were either held once a year, or once every three or four years.[‡ 1] The first act regarding MNAs was adopted in 1870.[‡ 1]
The competencies the National Assembly are defined by the Constitution of Serbia, articles 98–110:[2][8]
Performs other functions stipulated by the Constitution and Law.
Parliamentary elections are regulated by the Constitution.[8] The elections are held after the four-year term of the previous assembly has expired, but can also be held before that if the National Assembly dismisses the Government or the Government resigns and no majority can be reached to elect a new Government. Elections are called by the President of Serbia 90 days before the end of the term of office of the National Assembly, so that elections are finished within the following 60 days. Elections are closed party-list proportional. The whole country is one electoral district. 250 seats are then distributed between the lists using d'Hondt method. There is a minimum voting threshold of 3% so that only the party lists which get more than 3% of the votes are awarded the seats. There is no threshold for the ethnic minority lists.
After the elections, the first session of the new Assembly is convened by the Speaker from the previous convocation, so that the session is held not later than 30 days from the day of declaring the final election results.[2]
The assembly is composed of 250 deputies. At least 30% of the deputies are women. Deputies may not hold dual functions which represent a conflict of interest.[2] Deputies enjoy parliamentary immunity.
By means of majority votes of all deputies, the National Assembly elects the President of the Assembly (speaker) and one or more vice-presidents (deputy speakers), usually one vice-president from each parliamentary group. The President of the National Assembly represents the National Assembly, convokes its sessions, presides over them and performs other official activities. The vice-presidents assist the President in performing the duties within their purview.
In case the President is temporarily absent, one of the vice-presidents designated by them stands in for them. If the President does not designate any of the vice-presidents to stand in for them, the oldest vice-president shall stand in for them.[2]
The Secretary of the National Assembly is appointed by the National Assembly. Secretary of the National Assembly assists the President and vice-presidents in preparing and chairing sittings. Their term of office is terminated upon the constitution of a newly elected National Assembly, while they shall continue discharging their duties until the appointment of a new Secretary.[2] Secretary is not elected from the deputies, and is not a member of the Assembly.
Parliamentary groups in the National Assembly must be formed no later than seven days following the election of the President.
Any grouping of five or more deputies can be officially recognised as a parliamentary group, with each deputy permitted to be members of only a single group at any one time. Although groups are mostly based on electoral lists from the previous election to the Assembly, groups are often a diverse collection of different parties as well as independents. This is due to Serbia's complex multi-party system, with many parties having a presence in the legislature; parties with similar ideology, but low representation, are therefore inclined to cooperate and form joint parliamentary groups together to secure more privileges they would otherwise not be entitled to, such as additional speaking time and committee assignments. An example of such a group included the LDP–LSV–SDA group.
The parliamentary groups are each led by a president, who are usually assisted by a number of vice-presidents; it is common practice for heterogeneous groups (i.e. ones which comprise two or more parties) to have a vice-president from the junior party in the group. The presidents of the groups regularly meet with the President of the Assembly to discuss and arrange the agenda for future meetings.
Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) initially indicated that, if an elected representative's mandate ended before the dissolution of the assembly, the right to fill the vacant position would "belong to the political party on whose electoral list the representative whose mandate [had] ceased was elected," and a new parliamentary mandate would be awarded to a candidate from the relevant party's electoral list who did not win a mandate in the general election.[9] The law did not specify that the mandate would fall sequentially to the next candidate on the list who did not win a mandate. In addition, elected representatives whose party memberships were terminated or whose names were struck from the register of their party (or the political organisation on whose list they were elected) were automatically deemed to have their assembly mandates terminated; this latter provision was rescinded by a constitutional court decision in 2003.[10]
This system was sometimes criticised. Vesna Pešić, for many years a prominent opposition figure in Serbia, noted in 2007 that it permitted party leaders to determine which candidates would enter parliament following elections, irrespective of where the candidates were placed on the lists. Pešić also stated that, after the 2003 constitutional court decision, members who entered the assembly were often required by their parties to sign blank resignation letters, by which means they could be expelled from parliament if they dissented from a party position. She argued that this led to corrupt practices, sometimes involving the misuse of assembly mandates to either keep governments in office or seek their overthrow.[11] Daniel Bochsler, in a 2010 essay on Serbia's political system, also noted that the system gave party leaders significant control over individual mandates, although he added that the system of requiring blank resignation letters was "more understandable if we take into account that party switches are very common in post-communist legislatures, and not only in Serbia."[12]
The law was reformed in 2011, to clarify that vacant mandates would be "awarded to the first candidate from the same electoral list who was not awarded a mandate" and that, in the event of a resignation of a member elected on a coalition list, the vacant mandate would fall to the first candidate on the list from the same party who was not awarded a mandate. It also established a provision for the return to parliament of members who resigned during the same convocation to take a position in government, and it stipulated that members would be required to submit resignation letters in person.[13]