Local elections were held in Belgrade on 17 December 2023 to elect members of the City Assembly. Initially scheduled to be held by 2026, the election was called earlier after Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia, announced in September 2023 that the election could be held in December 2023. In response to the announcement, Aleksandar Šapić, the mayor of Belgrade, tendered his resignation. Šapić ceased being mayor on 30 October 2023, when the Temporary Council of Belgrade was established. The elections were held concurrently with the parliamentary, Vojvodina provincial, and the local elections in 64 cities and municipalities in Serbia.
Although opposition parties won more votes in the 2022 Belgrade City Assembly election, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) remained in charge of the Belgrade government initially with the help of a single independent councillor who voted in favour of Šapić becoming mayor of Belgrade. Šapić was faced with an unsuccessful attempt to dismiss him as mayor in October 2022 while following the Belgrade school shooting and a mass murder near Mladenovac and Smederevo in May 2023, anti-government protests were organised in Belgrade by several opposition parties up to November. Opposition parties organising these protests formed a joint coalition, named Serbia Against Violence (SPN), in October.
During the campaign period, candidates concentrated on issues such as fighting against corruption, introducing environmental measures, improving public transport, and expanding Belgrade's water systems. The City Electoral Commission proclaimed 14 electoral lists for the election. Monitoring and non-governmental organisations reported that the election day was marked with electoral fraud. SNS and SPS lost its coalition majority in the Assembly, while from the opposition, SPN and the National Democratic Alternative won 43 and 7 seats respectively. With the We–The Voice from the People of conspiracy theorist Branimir Nestorović unexpectedly gaining representation in the Assembly, the 2023 election resulted in a hung parliament. After the election, mass protests were held until 30 December. The City Assembly was not constituted by 3 March 2024, ultimately triggering a snap election in which SNS re-gained its parliamentary majority with Šapić coming back as mayor.
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Background.
In the 2022 Belgrade City Assembly election, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won 48 seats, while the Socialist Party of Serbia–United Serbia coalition retained its 8 seats in the City Assembly. The election also saw the United for the Victory of Belgrade (UZPB) alliance winning 26 seats; the We Must alliance won 13 seats, while the National Democratic Alternative, Serbian Party Oathkeepers (SSZ), and Dveri also gained representation. Despite this, opposition parties won more votes than the government parties in the election; the Social Democratic Party–New Party coalition was short 0.14 percent of the popular vote to cross the 3 percent threshold. Shortly after the election, Dragan Đilas, the leader of the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP), which was a part of the opposition UZPB alliance, met with Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbian Progressive Party, to discuss about the outcome of the election. This move received criticism from SSP's coalition partners, like the People's Party (Narodna) and Democratic Party (DS), which ultimately led to the dissolution of the coalition.
After the negotiations, Vuk Stanić, a councillor-elect of the City Assembly, left the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, and voted in favour of Aleksandar Šapić of SNS becoming mayor in June 2022. Later in October 2022, the Ujedinjeni councillor group filed a proposal for dismissal of Šapić, citing alleged illegal legalisation of the extension of an apartment at Bežanija. This proposal was also supported from Narodna, DS, Moramo, and Dveri, however it failed as only 44 members voiced their support of it. During this period, Marija Vukomirović and Stefan Jovanović, who were affiliated with SSZ, left the party, stating their disapproval of the party's leader, Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski. Stanić, Vukomirović, and Jovanović defected to SNS in February 2023.
2023 protests.
In May 2023, the Belgrade school shooting and a mass murder near Mladenovac and Smederevo occurred. The government of Serbia responded by adopting measures such as stricter regulations on gun ownership and hiring 1,200 police officers to schools, while it was also criticised, particularly due to the statement of Branko Ružić, the minister of education, who said that "a cancerous, pernicious influence of the Internet, video games, and so-called Western values, is evident" ("evidentan je kancerogen, poguban uticaj interneta video igrica, takozvanih zapadnih vrednosti") in the shooting, and Ana Brnabić, the prime minister of Serbia, who said that the "system did not fail" ("sistem nije zakazao") when responding to the claims that the government could have stopped the shootings.
This resulted in mass protests, named Serbia Against Violence, which began on 8 May in Belgrade. Tens of thousands attended the protests. Despite being organised by the SSP, DS, Narodna, Do not let Belgrade drown (NDB), and Together (Zajedno) opposition parties, no party signs were reported to be seen at the protests. In response to the Serbia Against Violence protests, Vučić held an SNS-organised gathering on 26 May in Belgrade. The protests ended in early November.
Electoral system.
Local elections in Belgrade are held under a proportional representation system. Eligible voters vote for electoral lists, on which the registered candidates are present. An electoral list could be submitted by a registered political party, a coalition of political parties, or a citizens' group. The number of valid signatures needed to be collected to take part in the election varies by the number of eligible voters in that municipality. At least 40 percent of candidates on electoral lists must be female. The electoral list is submitted by its chosen ballot representative, who does not have to be present on its electoral list. An electoral list could be declined, after which those who had submitted can fix the deficiencies in a span of 48 hours, or rejected, if the person is not authorised to nominate candidates. The name and date of the election, the names of the electoral lists and its ballot representatives, and information on how to vote are only present on the voting ballot.
The City of Belgrade Electoral Commission (GIK) and polling boards oversee the election. Seats are allocated with an electoral threshold of 3 percent of all votes cast, however, if no electoral list wins 3 percent of all votes cast, then all electoral lists that received votes can participate in the distribution of seats. The seats are distributed by electoral lists in proportion to the number of votes received, while the number of seats belonging to electoral lists is determined by applying the highest quotient system. The seats are distributed by dividing the total number of votes received by the electoral list participating in the distribution of seats by each number from one to the number of councillors the City Assembly has. The obtained quotients are classified by size so that the electoral list has as many mandates as it has its quotients among the highest quotients of all the electoral lists participating in the distribution. If two or more electoral lists receive the same quotients on the basis of which the seat is distributed, the electoral list that received the greater number of votes has priority. The seats in the City Assembly are awarded to the candidates to their order on the electoral list, starting with the first candidate from an electoral list. When the councillors of the City Assembly are sworn in, they, in turn, elect the mayor.
Any local election, whether it is a municipal or a City Assembly election, is called by the president of the National Assembly, who also has to announce its date. To vote, a person must be a citizen and resident of Serbia at least 18 years old. A voter could only vote in the municipality of their residence. An election silence begins two days before the scheduled election, meaning that no opinion polls, presentation of candidates and their programmes, or invitation to vote in the election could be published or take place.
Voter manipulation allegations.
Miroslav Aleksić alleged in October 2023 that between 300 and 500 citizens daily fictitiously changed their home address because of the elections in Belgrade, accusing the local government of being involved in the process. Ana Gođevac, a SSP councillor, also said that between 21 September and 24 October 2023, the number of registered voters in Vračar increased by 356 and that the same pattern was noticed in other municipalities of Belgrade. Nikola Jovanović, the director of the Centre for Local Self-Management (CLS), reported in late October 2023 that between July and October 2023, the number of registered voters rose up by 2,349, while since the 2022 Belgrade City Assembly election, the number of registered voters went up by 9,590. Jovanović noted that the number of registered voters has significantly increased in the municipalities of Vračar, Zvezdara, Zemun, and Palilula, despite Belgrade's population being in decline since 2021, alleging potential "pre-election voter manipulation" ("predizbornom inženjeringu"). The Interior Affairs Ministry publicly published the residence data for Belgrade in mid November due to the allegations.
Election date.
At the Đilas–Vučić meeting in April 2022, Đilas demanded snap elections be held in Belgrade due to the inconclusive results of the 2022 election. Vučić responded by saying that the elections could be held in December 2022 or March 2023. In April 2023, newspaper "Danas" reported that snap parliamentary elections, local elections, Vojvodina provincial election, and the Belgrade City Assembly election could be held as early as in November 2023. At a press conference in August 2023, Vučić said that early Belgrade City Assembly elections could be held in December 2023 or early 2024. In September 2023, Vučić and Šapić announced that they could be held on 17 December 2023. Šapić resigned as mayor on 29 September, triggering a 30-day limit to appoint a new mayor. Considering that a new mayor was not appointed, an election had to be called. The government of Serbia sent a proposal to dissolve the City Assembly of Belgrade and constitute the Temporary Council of Belgrade on 30 October. Vladimir Orlić, the president of the National Assembly of Serbia, called the election on 1 November.
The Temporary Council of Belgrade was constituted on 30 October, with Šapić serving as the president of the body, while Aleksandar Mirković, Nikola Nikodijević, Vladimir Obradović, and Dobrica Veselinović served as its members. Besides Šapić ceased being mayor, all local self-government bodies and executive bodies ceased to work until the election of a new mayor.
Political parties.
The table below lists political parties represented in the City Assembly of Belgrade after the 2022 election.
Pre-election activities.
Opposition parties.
Although the We Must alliance ceased to exist on national level after the 2022 elections, its coalition members continued cooperating in the City Assembly of Belgrade under the "For a Good City" group. Together, with Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta, Biljana Stojković, and Nebojša Zelenović as its co-presidents, was formed in June 2022 as a merger of Together for Serbia, Ecological Uprising, and Assembly of Free Serbia. Solidarity, which was also affiliated with the We Must alliance, merged into Together in January 2023. NDB announced in late June 2022 that it had adopted a platform to work on becoming a registered party, while it began collecting signatures in May 2023. It also announced that it would rename itself to Green–Left Front (ZLF). ZLF was formalised in July 2023.
Within Narodna, a dispute between its president Vuk Jeremić and vice-president Aleksić began in June 2023. Aleksić was eventually removed from the position of the party's executive board in July 2023; he then publicly acknowledged the conflict between him and Jeremić. Although a leadership is scheduled for October 2023, Aleksić left Narodna and reconstituted the People's Movement of Serbia (NPS) in August 2023. Four Narodna councillors also joined Aleksić's NPS and subsequently formed a group in the City Assembly of Belgrade. This decision left Narodna only with two councillors, ultimately losing its status as a group in the City Assembly of Belgrade. In September 2023, Dveri and SSZ formed a joint group which was formalised in October as the National Gathering.
The Ujedinjeni group changed its name to Forward to Europe (PE) in July 2023.
Election alliances.
Like for the parliamentary elections, opposition parties organising the Serbia Against Violence protests have discussed about creating a joint electoral list for the Belgrade City Assembly election. Radomir Lazović and Dobrica Veselinović from ZLF have expressed their support for creating a joint electoral