ELECTORAL SYSTEMS – A SPECIAL REVIEW OF THE LOCAL-SELF GOVERNMENT IN SERBIA

Abstract

The electoral system is part of the broader election law, which also includes an electoral form, constituencies, electoral competition, voting, methods of converting votes into mandates, as well as election threshold. Most often, the choice of the model by which the members of the representative bodies will be elected has a major effect on the entire political system of the state.
Regarding the electoral form, the electoral systems at both the national and local level are divided into majority and proportional ones, but there is also a large number of "mixed" electoral systems. When it comes to the Republic of Serbia, as well as many other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the initial dominance of the majority electoral system in almost all the countries in the 1990s was gradually replaced by a proportional electoral system.
Local self-government represents a democratic framework for citizen participation in managing the affairs of their immediate interest,where citizens, directly and by secret ballot, elect the municipal assembly members, as the highest representative body of the municipality. In the case of local self-government, the D'Hondt election method and the 5% threshold are applied.
When it comes to the electoral systems and the parties of national minorities, the laws of the Republic of Serbia provide significant measures for the participation of this type of political organization in the distribution of mandates, subject to special conditions, even when they receive less than 5% of the total number of votes.