Vojvodina provincial assembly gets new speaker

NOVI SAD - The assembly of Serbia's Vojvodina province on Thursday elected Balint Juhas of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) as its new speaker.

Eighty-one of 120 assembly members in attendance voted in favour of Juhas, 28 voted against and six took no part in the vote.

Damir Zobenica, Aleksandra Maletic, Nemanja Zavisic i Boris Novakovic were also elected deputy speakers.

Aleksandra Stojkovic was elected the legislature's secretary general.

Juhas succeeds the SVM's Istvan Pastor, who was in the post from 2012 until his death in the autumn of 2023.

The mandates of the 120 assembly members were confirmed at a February 9 constitutive session.

The Aleksandar Vucic-led Vojvodina Must Not Stop electoral list has the majority in the new Vojvodina assembly with 66 seats, the Serbia Against Violence coalition has 30 seats, the SVM has nine, the Socialist Party of Serbia and a coalition around the New Democratic Party of Serbia have seven seats each and the Russian Party has one.