Provincial elections were held in Vojvodina on 17 December 2023 to elect members of the Assembly of Vojvodina. Initially scheduled to be held by 30 June 2024, the possibility of calling a snap election was discussed in 2023. The Assembly dissolved itself on 16 November 2023, setting the election date for 17 December. It was concurrently held with the parliamentary and local elections in 65 cities and municipalities in Serbia.

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which came to power in Vojvodina in 2016, won a supermajority of seats in the 2020 election due to the election boycott that was proclaimed by most opposition parties, including Alliance for Serbia which claimed that the election would not be free and fair. Igor Mirović also retained his position as the president of the government of Vojvodina. The election was preceded by the death of the Assembly president István Pásztor in October 2023. The Provincial Electoral Commission proclaimed 13 electoral lists for the election. For the first time ever, Mirović was not present on the SNS electoral list and did not take part in its election campaign.

The election resulted in SNS losing its supermajority, but still retaining a parliamentary majority on its own. The opposition Serbia Against Violence alliance also crossed the threshold. After the election, Maja Gojković succeeded Mirović as the president of the government.

Background

A populist coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) came to power in Vojvodina after the 2016 election, along with the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ). Since then, Igor Mirović of SNS has been the president of the government of Vojvodina. On national level in Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, who initially served as deputy prime minister and later as prime minister, was elected president of Serbia in 2017. Since he came to power, observers have assessed that Serbia has suffered from democratic backsliding into authoritarianism, followed by a decline in media freedom and civil liberties. In 2023, the V-Dem Institute categorised Serbia as an electoral autocracy, while Freedom House noted that SNS has "eroded political rights and civil liberties, put pressure on independent media, the opposition, and civil society organisations".

The For Our Children coalition, led by SNS, won a supermajority of votes and seats in the 2020 provincial election. SNS was followed by the SPS–United Serbia (JS) coalition which won 13 seats, the Vojvodina Front, led by the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV), which won 6 seats; Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia (POKS) each won 5 seats, while the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) won 4 seats. The election was organised amidst the boycott of most opposition parties, including the leading Alliance for Serbia (SZS) coalition, which claimed that election conditions are not free and fair. Following the election, Mirović was re-elected as president of the government of Vojvodina, establishing a coalition government composed of SNS, SPS, JS, and VMSZ. Since the 2020 provincial elections, general elections were organised in Serbia in April 2022. This time, SNS led the Together We Can Do Everything coalition, which lost its parliamentary majority in the election. However, twelve electoral lists in total, including the ones from the opposition, crossed the 3 percent threshold. In Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, SNS was met with a decline in support in the election.

Electoral system The 120 members of the Assembly of Vojvodina are elected by closed-list proportional representation from a single nationwide constituency. Eligible voters vote for electoral lists, on which the registered candidates are present. A maximum of 120 candidates could be present on a single electoral list. An electoral list could be only submitted by a registered political party; until 2023, a coalition of political parties or a citizens' group could do it as well. To submit an electoral list, at least 4,000 valid signatures must be collected, though ethnic minority parties only need to collect 2,000 signature to qualify on ballot. At least 40 percent of candidates on electoral lists must be female. The electoral list is submitted by its chosen ballot representative. 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, names of the electoral lists and its ballot representatives, and information on how to vote are only present on the voting ballot.

The Provincial Electoral Commission (PIK), local election commissions, and polling boards oversee the election. Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method with an electoral threshold of 3 percent of all votes cast, although the threshold is waived for ethnic minority parties. 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 120. 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. Seats are awarded to candidates from electoral lists according to their order, starting with the first candidate from an electoral list.

A provincial election is called by the president of the Assembly of Vojvodina, who also has to announce its date and dissolve the Assembly in the process. It is possible for a snap election to take place. To vote, a person has to be a citizen and resident of Serbia and at least 18 years old. At least five days before the election, citizens are notified about the election, receive information about the day and time of the election, and the address of the polling station where they could vote. During the election day, registered voters could vote from 07:00 (UTC+01:00) to 20:00, though if the polling station is opened later than 07:00, voting is then extended by the amount of time for which the opening of the polling station was delayed.

Until 2014, provincial elections were conducted under a mixed electoral system; 60 seats were conducted under a proportional representation system and the other 60 seats were conducted under a first-past-the-post majoritarian system. Since then, all 120 seats have been conducted under a proportional representation system. Dejan Bursać, an associate at the Institute of Political Studies in Belgrade, noted that with this change, geographical and minority representation decreased in the Assembly of Vojvodina while the representation of women increased.

Parliamentary groups led by SNS, SPS–JS, and VMSZ introduced a proposal to amend the electoral system of Vojvodina in September 2023. They had proposed to lower the number of needed valid signatures and to bar coalitions and citizens' groups from taking place in the future elections. The Assembly of Vojvodina adopted the changes on 4 October, with 90 votes in favour.

Election date In April 2023, the 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 July 2023, Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia and former president of SNS, said that an early parliamentary election "could take place in September or December if the opposition parties agree. And if not, we will have general elections in April or May 2024, to be held concurrently with the Vojvodina provincial election and the regular local elections". By law, the Vojvodina provincial election and regular local elections could be held as late as 30 June 2024. Darko Glišić, the president of the SNS executive board, stated that the local and provincial elections will be held in the first half of 2024. In August, Vučić said that provincial and local elections will "certainly be held in the next six or seven months", and that "most likely, parliamentary ones will be held as well".

Newspaper Nova and news portal N1 reported in September 2023 that local, provincial, and parliamentary elections could be held as early as 19 December 2023. Vučić and Miloš Vučević, the president of SNS, also held a gathering with officials from Vojvodina on 5 September, with newspaper Blic reporting that the official date will be revealed after the 78th United Nations General Assembly, which is set to be held on 18–26 September. In late September, Vučić announced that the elections will be called in December 2023 for them to be organised on 4 March 2024. He subsequently announced that they could be held on 17 December 2023. Mirović, however, stated that he does not plan to resign from the position of the president of the government of Vojvodina.

Due to the death of István Pásztor, the president of the Assembly of Vojvodina, in late October 2023, a new president of the Assembly of Vojvodina had to be elected for the elections to be called on 17 December, considering that the president of the Assembly of Vojvodina only has the right to call provincial elections. Portal Autonomija described the situation as "unprecedented in the history of the Assembly of Vojvodina". Momo Čolaković, elected president of the Assembly of Vojvodina on 6 November, scheduled a session of the Assembly for 16 November, proposing an early termination of mandates for the election to be called on 17 December. With 95 votes in favour, the Assembly dissolved itself on 16 November, setting the election date for 17 December.

Political parties

The table below lists political parties and coalitions elected to the Assembly of Vojvodina after the 2020 provincial election.

Name Ideology Political position Leader 2020 result Votes (%) Seats SNS–led coalition Populism Big tent Igor Mirović 61.58% SPS–JS Populism Big tent Dušan Bajatović 11.18% Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians Minority politics Centre-right István Pásztor 9.29% Vojvodina Front Vojvodina autonomism Centre-left Nenad Čanak 5.12% Democratic Party of Serbia National conservatism Right-wing Branislav Ristivojević 4.38% POKS National conservatism Right-wing Goran Ivančević 4.21% Serbian Radical Party Ultranationalism Far-right Đurađ Jakšić 3.27%

Pre-election composition + Pre-election parliamentary composition Groups Parties MPs Seats Total Aleksandar Vučić – For Our Children SNS 68 78 PSS–BK 3 PUPS 3 SDPS 3 PS 2 SPO 1 SV 1 Socialist Party of Serbia – United Serbia SPS 8 13 JS 3 ZS 1 1 Vajdasági Magyar Szövetség – Pásztor István VMSZ/SVM 11 11 NADA – New DSS – POKS NDSS 4 8 POKS 4 Vojvodina Front – League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, Vojvodina's Party LSV 5 6 VP 1 MPs not members of parliamentary groups SRS 4 4

Pre-election activities Government parties The Serbian Patriotic Alliance (SPAS), a party that won several seats in the City Assemblies of Novi Sad and Kikinda, was offered to merge into SNS in May 2021. Aleksandar Šapić, the leader of SPAS, accepted the offer and SPAS ceased to exist on 29 May. In preparation for the 2022 elections, SNS affirmed their cooperation with SPS. However, after the 2022 elections, Vučić hinted at a potential formation of a bloc or a movement, which he later revealed in March 2023 to be the People's Movement for the State (NPZD). He said that NPZD would act as a "supra-party movement" and that SNS would not be dissolved. Miloš Vučević, the former mayor of Novi Sad, was elected president of SNS in May 2023 and affirmed that SNS would take part in the movement, with Vučić as its leader. The movement is set to be formed by September 2023.

Dušan Bajatović, the leader of SPS in Vojvodina, announced in July 2023 the preparations for the upcoming elections in Vojvodina.

Opposition parties