Goran Ćirić

Goran Ćirić (Serbian Cyrillic: Горан Ћирић; born July 25, 1960) is a politician in Serbia. He has served in the National Assembly of Serbia since 2014 as a member of the Democratic Party and has led the party's parliamentary group since 2016. Ćirić previously served as the mayor of Niš from 2000 to 2004.

Early life and career

Ćirić was born and raised in Niš, Serbia, in what was at the time the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He graduated in electronic engineering in 1984. Ćirić joined the Democratic Party in 1992, became part of its executive in 1996, and served as president of the party organization in Niš from 1997 to 2001.[1] In late 1999, he was involved in organizing protests against the rule of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević.[2]

Mayor of Niš

Ćirić was elected as the mayor of Niš in late 2000, succeeding Zoran Živković, who was also at the time a member of the Democratic Party. In December 2000, Ćirić hosted talks between Miloševiċ's successor Vojislav Koštunica and Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov.[3]

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.[4] This project was ultimately postponed in 2002 when the European Investment Bank withheld funding, stating that demand for the highway was insufficient and that the project could not quickly recoup its initial losses.[5] In 2003, Ćirić and the mayors of Sofia and Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, signed an agreement to form a euroregion centred around their communities.[6]

Ćirić was chair of the Permanent Conference of the Cities and Municipalities in Yugoslavia in this period. In this capacity, he signed an accord for greater cooperation between the local governments of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria in early 2002 with a representative of the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria.[7] In early 2003, Ćirić reached an agreement with Radio Television of Serbia for Radio Niš to be privatized after one year of transitional funding.[8]

Ćirić was defeated by Smiljko Kostić of the New Serbia party by a significant margin in the October 2004 municipal election.[9]

In addition to serving as mayor, Ćirić was elected to the National Assembly of Serbia in the 2000 Serbian parliamentary election. He received the forty-fourth position on the Democratic Opposition of Serbia list, a broad alliance that included the Democratic Party and that won a landslide majority with 176 parliamentary mandates.[10] He served in the legislature until the 2003 parliamentary election, for which he received the sixty-fifth position on the Democratic Party's coalition list. The list won thirty-seven seats, and Ćirić was not selected as part of the party's parliamentary delegation after the election.[11]

Subsequent career

The government of Serbia appointed Ćirić as managing director of PTT Saobraćaja Srbija on November 2, 2007.[12] In 2009, he announced that the organization would become a closed shareholding company in state ownership.[13] He stood down from the position in 2012, following a change in government that saw the Democratic Party move into opposition.[14]

Ćirić was elected as a deputy chair of the Democratic Party in November 2012.[15]

Return to the National Assembly

Ćirić received the eleventh position on the Democratic Party's coalition electoral list in the 2014 Serbian parliamentary election and was returned to the assembly after an eleven-year absence when the list won nineteen mandates.[16] He was promoted to the seventh position in the 2016 election and was declared re-elected when the list won sixteen mandates.[17] Ćirić replaced Bojan Pajtić as leader of the Democratic Party's parliamentary group in October 2016.[18]

He is currently a member of the parliamentary committee on finance, state budget, and control of public spending and the committee on spatial planning, transport, infrastructure, and telecommunications; the head of the parliamentary friendship group for Japan, and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups for Slovenia and the United Kingdom.[19]

References

  1. ↑ Goran Ćirić, www.istinomer.rs, accessed 30 March 2017.
  2. ↑ "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).
  3. ↑ "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).
  4. ↑ Lili Granitska, "FINANCING FOR CONSTRUCTION OF SOFIA-NIS HIGHWAY TO BE SOUGHT FROM THE STABILITY PACT," Bulgarian News Agency, 27 September 2001.
  5. ↑ Lili Granitska, "Sofia-Nis Motorway Project Put Off Indefinitely," Bulgarian News Agency, 1 March 2002.
  6. ↑ "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.
  7. ↑ "Bulgarian, Yugoslav Municipality Associations Sign Cooperation Agreement," Bulgarian News Agency, 15 February 2002.
  8. ↑ "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).
  9. ↑ "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). This source indicates that Kostić defeated Ćirić by a margin of 62.8% to 35.6%.
  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), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 March 2017. Prior to a 2011 reform, Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) indicated 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 required to provide to the electoral commission "the data on which candidates from the electoral list will be awarded representative mandates won on that list" within ten days of the final results being published. The law did not specify that mandates should be distributed to candidates in the order of their appearance on the list, and it was a common practice in this period for parties to facilitate the election of some candidates who appeared in lower positions. See Law on the Election of Representatives (Article 92), Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017. Although Ćirić did not automatically win a position in the assembly by virtue of his high position on the electoral list, he was subsequently confirmed as part of the DOS parliamentary delegation.
  11. ↑ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА - БОРИС ТАДИЋ), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 March 2017.
  12. ↑ "Serbian government appoints directors of public companies," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 2 November 2007.
  13. ↑ "Tandem Financial - Serbian Daily Report - Oct 12, 2009," South East Europe News Digest, 13 October 2009.
  14. ↑ Goran Ćirić, www.istinomer.rs, accessed 30 March 2017.
  15. ↑ "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).
  16. ↑ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (СА ДЕМОКРАТСКОМ СТРАНКОМ ЗА ДЕМОКРАТСКУ СРБИЈУ), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 March 2017.
  17. ↑ Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (АЛЕКСАНДАР ВУЧИЋ - СРБИЈА ПОБЕЂУЈЕ), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 March 2017.
  18. ↑ "Ćirić ZAMENIO PAJTIĆA u Skupštini Srbije, na čelu poslanika DS", Blic, 3 October 2016, accessed 30 March 2017.
  19. ↑ Goran Ciric, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 30 March 2017.
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