Bajro Gegić () is a Serbian politician from the country's Bosniak community. He has been the mayor of Tutin on two occasions and has served two terms in the National Assembly of Serbia. A member of the Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak (SDA) for many years, he left the party in 2020 to form his own local political group.
Early life and private career Gegić was born in Tutin, in the Sandžak region of what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Raised in the community, he graduated in mathematics from the Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, was a professor for more than twenty years, and then worked as an education inspector.BAJRO GEGIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 5 February 2017.
Politician Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak The SDA-led List for Sandžak (LZS) alliance won a majority victory in Tutin in the 2004 Serbian local elections,Lokalni Izbori – Republika Srbija; Lokalni Izbori 2004; Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; p. 96. and Gegić was afterward appointed as the municipality's deputy mayor. He served in this role for the next four years, working under the directly elected mayor Šemsudin Kučević. He was also appointed as a secretary of state in Serbia's education ministry in 2005, after the LZS agreed to support Serbian prime minister Vojislav Koštunica's administration, and served until 2008.BAJRO GEGIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 5 February 2017."Poslanik, zamenik i čarobni štapić", B92, 28 September 2005, accessed 15 November 2022.
Gegić appeared in the thirteenth position on the LZS's electoral list in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election and the eleventh position on the successor "Bosniak List for a European Sandžak" in the 2008 parliamentary election.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (10 Коалиција Листа за Санџак др Сулејман Угљанин), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 БОШЊАЧКА ЛИСТА ЗА ЕВРОПСКИ САНЏАК - ДР СУЛЕЈМАН УГЉАНИН), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 19 May 2024. On each occasion, the list won two mandates and he was not given a seat. (From 2000 to 2011, mandates in Serbian parliamentary elections were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order. Gegić could have been awarded a mandate on either occasion, though ultimately he was not.)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 7 April 2024.
The direct election of mayors was abandoned with the 2008 Serbian local elections. The SDA won another majority victory in Tutin in this cycle, and Kučević was chosen by the elected delegates for another term as mayor. He resigned shortly thereafter to become a deputy director in Serbia's Office for Sustainable Development of Underdeveloped Areas.Lokalni Izbori 2008; Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; p. 67."ŠEMSUDIN KUČEVIĆ PO ČETVRTI PUT NA ČELU TUTINA", Bošnjaci Net, 16 May 2008, accessed 12 November 2022."Sjećanje na rahmetli Šemsudina Kučevića, četiri godine od preseljenja", S News, 12 October 2021, accessed 12 November 2022. Gegić was named as Kučević's successor and served as mayor for the remainder of the four-year term.Biografija predsjednika opštine Tutin, , Municipality of Tutin, accessed 15 November 2022. While in office, he oversaw the establishment of the first windmill in Serbia, in the village of Leskova, and announced plans for more wind turbines in the area."Prva srpska vetrenjača u Tutinu", B92, 11 April 2011, accessed 15 November 2022. In 2010, he articulated the municipality's infrastructural challenges in an interview with Danas."Industrijska zona na Pešteru velika nada", Danas, 8 July 2010, accessed 15 November 2022.
Parliamentarian First term (2012–14) and after Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that assembly mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order. The SDA fielded its own list in the 2012 parliamentary election; Gegić was given the second position and was elected when the party won two mandates.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (11 Странка демократске акције Санџака - др Сулејман Угљанин Stranka demokratske akcije Sandzaka - dr. Sulejman Ugljanin), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 10 July 2021.31 May 2012 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 11 November 2022. SDA leader Sulejman Ugljanin was re-appointed as a minister without portfolio in Serbia's government after the election, and the SDA supported the administration in the assembly. In his first term, Gegić was a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Germany, Montenegro, Tunisia, and Turkey.BAJRO GEGIĆ, , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 15 November 2022.
Gegić also received the second position (after Kučević) on the SDA's list for the Tutin municipal assembly in the 2012 local elections and was re-elected when the list won another majority victory with twenty-one out of thirty-seven mandates.Skupština opštine Tutin, , Municipality of Tutin, accessed 15 November 2022. Kučević was again chosen as mayor, and Gegić resigned from the local assembly on 21 June 2012.Službeni List (Opštine Tutin), Volume 4 Number 15 (2 October 2012), p. 8.
He was dropped to the ninth position on the SDA's list for the 2014 parliamentary election and, as the party won only three seats, was not re-elected.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (10 СДА Санџака - др Сулејман Угљанин SDA Sandzaka - dr. Sulejman Uglјanin), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. He was later given the second position on the SDA's "For Bosniak Unity" list in the 2014 election for the Bosniak National Council and was elected when the list won a majority victory with nineteen out of thirty-five seats.Избори за чланове националног савета бошњачке националне мањине, одржани 26. октобра и 2. новембра 2014. године (непосредни избори), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 18 May 2024. Gegić also served on the presidency of the SDA in this period, although he stood down in January 2015."Senior officials of the SDA resigned: Baćićanin, Gusinac, Gegić and Salihovic", Sandžak Press, 10 January 2015. It was reported at this time that there were serious divisions in the SDA's Tutin branch between supporters of Kučević and supporters of Gegić."Tutin – Sukob na relaciji Bajro Gegić – Šemsudin Kučević", Sana Press, 26 March 2015, accessed 15 November 2022.
Second term (2016–20) Gegić was given the fourth position on the SDA's list in the 2016 parliamentary election and was not initially elected when the list won two seats.Избори за народне посланике 2016. године – Изборне листе (9 SDA Sandžaka – Dr. Sulejman Ugljanin СДА Санџака – Др Сулејман Угљанин), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. He received a mandate on 10 August 2016, after Ugljanin resigned and the third-ranked candidate declined to serve.N. Kočević, "Gegić umesto Ugljanina u Skupštini Srbije", Radio Sto Plus, 10 August 2016, accessed 12 November 2022. The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its allies won a majority victory in this election, and the SDA sat in opposition for the term that followed in an assembly group with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV). Gegić was a member of the parliamentary committee on constitutional and legislative issues and a deputy member of the education committee and the health and family committee.BAJRO GEGIĆ, , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 15 November 2022.
Notwithstanding his rivalry with Kučević, Gegić once again received the second position on the SDA's list for Tutin in the 2016 local elections and was re-elected when the party won another majority victory with twenty-two seats.Službeni List (Opštine Tutin), 2016 Number 7 (12 April 2016), p. 3.Službeni List (Opštine Tutin), 2016 Number 7 (12 April 2016), p. 3; Lokalni Izbori – Republika Srbija; Lokalni Izbori 2016; Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; p. 66. The former source makes some obvious errors in matching the vote totals with the corresponding lists; the latter source includes the correct information. This time, he remained a member of the local assembly for the entire term that followed.Skupština opštine Tutin, , Municipality of Tutin, accessed 15 November 2022. Kučević died in a car accident in 2017, and Kenan Hot was chosen as his successor."Сахрањен Шемсудин Кучевић, председник општине Тутин", Politika, 13 October 2017, accessed 27 September 2022."Novi predsednik opštine Tutin Kenan Hot", RTV Novi Pazar, 6 November 2017, accessed 25 September 2022.
Gegić did not seek re-election to the Bosniak National Council in 2018.Избори за чланове националних савета националних мањина 2018. године, 4. новембар 2018. године – Проглашене изборне листе (Национални савет БОШЊАЧКЕ националне мањине), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 17 May 2024.
"Tutin in First Place" Gegić was expelled from the SDA in February 2020 after organizing his own electoral list in Tutin for the 2020 Serbian local elections.S. Novosel, "Poslanik Gegić isključen iz SDA Sandžaka", Danas, 21 February 2020, accessed 16 June 2020. The list, known as "Tutin in First Place," won five out of thirty-seven seats, as the SDA fell below an absolute majority in the municipality for the first time since 1996. Gegić appeared in the lead position on his party's list and was re-elected to the local assembly.Službeni List (Opštine Tutin), 2020 Number 11 (8 June 2020), p. 4.Službeni List (Opštine Tutin), 2020 Number 12 (22 June 2020), p. 3. The SDA continued to lead the local administration with Salih Hot in the role of mayor."Salih Hot izabran za predsjednika Opštine Tutin", SNews, 10 September 2020, accessed 25 September 2022. Gegić was not a candidate in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election, and his term in the national assembly ended in that year.
The Tutin SDA was extremely divided in the term that followed, and in late 2022 it was reported that the local parliament had become completely dysfunctional."Opština Tutin na ivici prinudne uprave", Danas, 29 September 2022, accessed 15 November 2022. In November 2022, Gegic's party and the Sandžak Democratic Party (SDP) joined the local government to provide it with a working majority."Tutin dobio novu-staru vlast: Bajro Gegić i SDP podržali SDA", Sana Press, 21 November 2022, accessed 25 December 2022. This proved to be a short-lived solution, however, and the assembly was unable to meet for several months in 2023 due to a lack of quorum.