Branislav Pomoriški

Branislav Pomoriški (Serbian Cyrillic: Бранислав Поморишки; born 28 January 1956) is an entrepreneur and former politician in Serbia. He served two terms in the National Assembly of Serbia between 1997 and 2004 and was president of the executive board in Novi Sad's city government from 2000 to 2004. During his time as an elected official, Pomoriški was a member of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV).

Early life and career

Pomoriški was born in the village of Botoš in Zrenjanin, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He attended high school in Zrenjanin and graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics with a bachelor's degree (1981) and a master's degree (1984). He later worked in the banking and financial sectors.^[1]

He has served as director of the "Vojvodina" Sports and Business Center and president of the management board of Naftna Industrija Srbije.^[2]

Politician

Parliamentarian

The LSV participated in the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election as part of the Vojvodina Coalition. Pomoriški appeared in the lead position on the coalition's electoral list for the Zrenjanin division and was elected when the list won a single mandate in the division.^[3][4] (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates from successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds would be distributed amongst other candidates on the lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties. As the list only won a single seat in the division, Pomoriški was automatically assigned the mandate.)^[5] The Socialist Party of Serbia and its allies won the election, and the Vojvodina Coalition served in opposition.

Three Vojvodina Coalition members, including Pomoriški and LSV leader Nenad Čanak, were expelled from the assembly under dubious circumstances on 7 December 1998, following a split in the movement; their mandates were revoked by the coalition's new leadership as recognized by Serbia's election commission. Following his expulsion, Pomoriški charged that the Serbian national assembly had ceased to be a real parliament and that Vojvodina was not receiving "a single dinar of authentic income as a province" due to pervasive state corruption.^[6][7]

The LSV subsequently contested the 2000 Serbian parliamentary election as part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to the authoritarian rule of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milošević. For this election, the entire country was counted as a single electoral division, and all mandates were assigned to candidates on the lists at the discretion of successful parties and coalitions, irrespective of numerical order.^[8] Pomoriški appeared in the sixty-fourth position on the DOS list and was awarded a mandate after the list won a landslide majority with 176 out of 250 seats.^[9][10]

Pomoriški and several other delegates resigned from the assembly on 12 June 2002, but their resignations were subsequently annulled on technical grounds.^[11][12] He continued serving as a parliamentarian until a new assembly was constituted in January 2004.

In February 2003, Pomoriški was involved in an altercation with Serbian Radical Party parliamentarian Tomislav Nikolić: Pomoriški insulted Nikolić's mother and spat on him, after which Nikolić spat on Pomoriški and pushed him. Nikolić was subsequently suspended from the assembly for thirty days for his actions.^[13]

City politics in Novi Sad

The 1996 city elections in Novi Sad were won by the Zajedno coalition, which included the LSV. Pomoriški served as a member of the city assembly's executive board following the election, with responsibility for finance.^[14] He was elected to the city assembly in the 2000 local elections as a DOS candidate.^[15] The DOS won a landslide victory in this election, and Pomoriški was appointed as president of the executive board of the city government for the term that followed.^[16]

He ran for mayor of Novi Sad in the 2004 local elections as a candidate of the Together for Vojvodina coalition (which included the LSV) and finished in third place against Radical Party candidate Maja Gojković. He was strongly critical of Gojković's administration, accusing her of trying to turn Novi Sad into a provincial backwater.^[17]

State Secretary in the Government of Serbia

Pomoriški was appointed as a state secretary in Serbia's ministry of the national investment plan in 2008. He was removed from the position in early 2010, against the backdrop of divisions between the LSV and G17 Plus, a party in Serbia's coalition government that controlled the ministry.^[18]

Entrepreneur

In 2011, Pomoriški founded the renewable energy company "Bioelektra". He subsequently took over the company "Mladast" in his home community of Botoš.^[19] In 2018, the newspaper Danas profiled his project to make Botoš the first village in Serbia with district heating.^[20]

Electoral record

Municipal (Novi Sad)

2004 City of Novi Sad local election
Mayor of Novi Sad - First and Second Rounds

Candidate	Party or Coalition	Votes	%		Votes	%
Maja Gojković	Serbian Radical Party	44,013	42.65		60,347	50.47
Borislav Novaković (incumbent)	Democratic Party	34,300	33.24		59,224	49.53
Branislav Pomoriški	Together for Vojvodina	8,450	8.19
Đorđe Bašić	Strength of Serbia Movement	5,243	5.08
Dejan Mikavica	Democratic Party of Serbia	3,942	3.82
Miodrag Isakov	Serbian Renewal Movement–Reformists of Vojvodina	3,556	3.45
Miloš Tomić	G17 Plus	2,171	2.10
Branislav Švonja	Community of Serbs of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina	894	0.87
Zoran Stojanović	New Serbia	628	0.61
Total valid votes		103,197	100		119,571	100
Sources: Nužda demokratskog zagrljaja, Vreme, 23 September 2004, accessed 17 July 2021; Lokalni Izbori u Srbiji 2004: Procena rezultata glasanja za gradonačelnika Novog Sada, 2004-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, Center for Free Elections and Democracy, 3 November 2004, accessed 17 July 2021.

References

1. S. Pašić, "Žetva raži za zelenu struju", Novosti, 23 June 2017, accessed 18 July 2021.
2. Pregled predloga kandidata za gradonačelnika Novog Sada, . Archived from the original on 2004-09-16. Retrieved 2022-07-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), City Electoral Commission of Novi Sad, 16 September 2004, accessed 18 July 2021.
3. ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Зрењанин), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
4. Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године, Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
5. Guide to the Early Election 2022-01-16 at the Wayback Machine, Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017.
6. "TREĆA SEDNICA, DRUGOG REDOVNOG ZASEDANJA, 07.12.1998.", Otvoreni Parlament, 7 December 1998, accessed 18 July 2021.
7. "NENAD CANAK BEZ MANDATA", Alternative Information Network, 9 December 1998, accessed 18 July 2021.
8. 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, accessed 28 February 2017.
9. 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 2 July 2021.
10. PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, 11 January 2001, accessed 18 July 2021.
11. DRUGO VANREDNO ZASEDANJE, 12.06.2002., Otvoreni Parlament, 12 June 2002, accessed 18 July 2021.
12. Milan Milošević, "Mrtve duše živih poslanika", Vreme, 8 August 2002, accessed 18 July 2021. See also PRVO VANREDNO ZASEDANJE, 27.01.2003., Otvoreni Parlament, 27 January 2003, where Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Šešelj alludes to Pomoriški having returned to the assembly despite his prior resignation.
13. Jelena Popadić, "У Србији нема системског политичког насиља", Politika, 3 December 2018, accessed 18 July 2021.
14. Izvršni odbor Skupštine grada, . Archived from the original on 1999-04-17. Retrieved 2022-07-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), City of Novi Sad, 17 April 1999, accessed 18 July 2021.
15. ODBORNICI I ODBORNICKE GRUPE, . Archived from the original on 2003-08-02. Retrieved 2021-07-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), City of Novi Sad, 2 August 2003, accessed 18 July 2021.
16. Izvrsni Odbor, . Archived from the original on 2003-06-21. Retrieved 2021-07-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), City of Novi Sad, 21 June 2003, accessed 18 July 2021.
17. Branislav Pomoriški, "Radikalna periferija", Vreme, 10 November 2005, accessed 18 July 2021.
18. "Костреш: Динкићева одмазда због Зрењанина", Politika, 1 March 2010, accessed 18 July 2021.
19. S. Pašić, "Žetva raži za zelenu struju", Novosti, 23 June 2017, accessed 18 July 2021.
20. M. Pudar, "Prvo srpsko selo sa daljinskim grejanjem", Danas, 18 April 2018, accessed 18 July 2021.