Tihomir Marjanović (; born 23 August 1944) is a Serbian retired academic and politician. He was the mayor of Požega from 1996 to 2000 and served in the Serbian parliament from 1997 to 2001. At different times in his career, Marjanović was a member of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), and the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia (PUPS), as well as serving as an independent representative at the end of his career.
Early life and career Marjanović was born in the village of Radovci near Požega, in what was then German-occupied territory in the closing period of the Axis occupation of Serbia. He was raised in the community, which was then part of the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, after the end of World War II. Marjanović graduated from high school in nearby Užice, received a mathematics degree from the Higher Pedagogical School in Belgrade (Užice department) in 1966, and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Novi Sad in 1969. He was a math teacher at the Požega high school from 1970 to 1986 and director of the community's education centre from 1986 to 1990.
Marjanović received a master's degree from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering in 1990 and taught at the "Sveti Sava" high school in Požega for the next two years. He then worked at the technical college in Čačak from 1992 to 1996, after which time he began working at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Užice, a division of the University of Kragujevac. In 2005, he received a PhD from the Department of Philosophy at the University of East Sarajevo and attained the title of Doctor of Mathematical Sciences.УЧИТЕЉСКИ ФАКУЛТЕТ: Тихомир Марјановић, University of Kragujevac - Faculty of Teacher Education (Užice), 2005?, accessed 27 May 2026.др Тихомир Марјановић, , University of Kragujevac - Faculty of Teacher Education (Užice), 8 October 2011, accessed 27 May 2026.
Politician Serbian Renewal Movement During the 1990s, Serbian political life was dominated by the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milošević, leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). The Serbian Renewal Movement contested the 1992 Serbian parliamentary election as part of an opposition alliance called the Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS). Marjanović appeared in the fifteenth position of the DEPOS electoral list for Užice; the list won six mandates, and he was not included in his party's assembly delegation.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (9 Ужице), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.Službeni Glasnik (Republike Srbije), Volume 49 Number 7 (25 January 1993), pp. 193–194. (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia had a "one-third/two-thirds" rule for the distribution of mandates in parliamentary elections (i.e., one-third of mandates were assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, with the remaining two-thirds distributed to other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions). Marjanović could have been given a mandate despite his list position, but he was not.)Guide to the Early Election , Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017.
In 1996, the SPO joined a new opposition coalition called Zajedno (English: Together). The coalition unexpectedly won several major cities in the 1996 Serbian local elections; in Požega, it won a narrow majority victory with twenty-seven out of fifty-two seats.Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 76. Marjanović was elected as a Zajedno candidate; when the assembly convened, he was chosen as its president, a position that was then equivalent to mayor, while Milka Marinković of the Democratic Party (DS) became vice-president."KONSTITUISANE SKUPSTINE OPSTINA ARILJE, KOSJERIC I POZEGA", Užice na internetu, 17 December 1996, accessed 25 May 2026. Although the Zajedno coalition broke apart at the republic level in mid-1997, it remained intact in Požega for the full term that followed.
Marjanović appeared in the second position on the SPO's list for a smaller, redistributed Užice division in the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election and was awarded a mandate in the national assembly when the list won two seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (19 Ужице), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (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, , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.PRVA SEDNICA, 03.12.1997., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 24 January 2026. The Socialist Party's alliance won the electoral overall, and the SPS formed a coalition government with the Yugoslav Left (JUL) and the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS). The SPO served in opposition.
In March 2000, Serbian government forces attempted to shut down an independent television station in Požega, leading to a riot. Marjanović defended the station and refuted government claims of opposition violence."Udar na elektronske medije", Vreme, 18 March 2000, accessed 27 May 2026. The matter was reported in the international media."MILOSEVIC’S REGIME TARGETS OPPOSITION MEDIA", Chicago Tribune, 29 March 2000, accessed 27 May 2026.
Several anti-Milošević parties came together to form the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) in 2000. DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the that year's Yugoslavian presidential election, and Milošević fell from power on 5 October 2000. The SPO was not part of the DOS alliance; in Požega, however, the DOS and SPO worked together for the 2000 Serbian local elections, which took place concurrently with the Yugoslavian vote, and won forty out of fifty-two seats.Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 63. Marjanović was re-elected to the assembly,Borba, 5 September 2003, p. 9. presumably as a DOS–SPO candidate, although he did not continue in the role of mayor. He was not a candidate in the 2000 Serbian parliamentary election, which was held in December of that year, and his parliamentary term ended when the new assembly convened in January 2001.
Democratic Party of Serbia By 2003, Marjanović had left the SPO and joined the Democratic Party of Serbia. In September of that year, he said that the local administration was not working as the DOS promised when it came to power.Borba, 5 September 2003, p. 9. He appeared in the 173rd position on the DSS's list in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election and was not assigned a mandate when the list won fifty-three seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3 ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА СРБИЈЕ - ВОЈИСЛАВ КОШТУНИЦА), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024."Skupština čeka demokrate", , Glas javnosti, 13 January 2004, accessed 28 December 2024. (By this time, Serbia's electoral laws had been reformed such that the entire country was a single at-large division and all mandates were assigned to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. Marjanović's list position had no specific bearing on his chances of election.)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 6 June 2021.
The DSS won six seats in Požega in the 2004 Serbian local elections and afterward formed a coalition government with the Radicals, the Socialists, the Strength of Serbia Movement (PSS), and G17 Plus. Marjanović was one of the DSS candidates elected and afterward served again as assembly president, a position that was now separated from the office of mayor.Direktorijum lokalnih samouprava u Srbiji, Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), September 2005, pp. 267–269. He did not serve in the assembly that was elected in 2008.Локална Самоуправа: Одборници – СПИСАК ОДБОРНИКА СКУПШТИНЕ ОПШТИНЕ ПОЖЕГА ИЗАБРАНИ 11.05.2008. ГОДИНЕ, , Municipality of Požega, accessed 27 May 2026.
Party of United Pensioners of Serbia/Independent Serbia's electoral laws were reformed again in 2011, such that all mandates in elections held under proportional representation were assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order. Marjanović returned to active political life in the 2016 Serbian local elections as a member of the PUPS, which contested the election in Požega on the list of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). He received the seventh position the SNS's list and was re-elected when the list won twenty-five seats.Službeni List (Opštine Požega), 2016 Number 3 (11 April 2016), p. 1.Službeni List (Opštine Požega), 2016 Number 5 (5 May 2016), pp. 1–2.
In early 2018, Požega's SNS-led government made the very controversial decision to purchase an illegal building co-owned by the spouse of the assembly president. Marjanović subsequently announced in the assembly that he could no longer support the local administration, saying, "Shame on you. You have lost my support.""Opština kupuje nezavršenu nelegalnu kuću za 120.000 evra", 3 February 2018, accessed 27 May 2026.Vesna Đurović, "Ko digne glas u Požegi, dobija pretnje, tužbe i pritiske", 1 April 2018, accessed 27 May 2026. He served afterward as an independent and did not seek re-election in 2020.
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