Vojvodina assembly speaker Istvan Pastor dies

NOVI SAD - The speaker of the assembly of Serbia's Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians leader Istvan Pastor died on Monday after a serious illness, aged 68.

Born in Majdan, Novi Knezevac municipality, in 1956, Pastor was a jurist by profession.

He joined the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians in 1995, the year of the party's inception, and became its president in 2007.

He served as a Subotica municipal assembly member between 1992 and 2000 and was also a federal MP in the parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1996 and 2000.

Between 1999 and 2002, he was a member of an interim national council of the Hungarian national minority and, at the same time, president of the council's executive committee.

Between 2000 and 2008, he served as Vojvodina provincial secretary for privatisation, entrepreneurship and SMEs and as secretary for the economy between 2008 and 2012.

He was also a two-time deputy president of the Executive Council of the Vojvodina province.