Predrag Jelenković (; born 1965) is a politician in Serbia. He has served in the National Assembly of Serbia since 2016 as a member of the Social Democratic Party of Serbia (SDPS).
Early life and career Jelenković has a doctorate in communication sciences.PREDRAG Dr JELENKOVIC, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 17 July 2017. He is based in Niš and worked in a privatization agency in the city.Predrag Blagojević and Sanja Janačković, "Funkcioner sam sebi odredio platu?", Juzne Vesti, 11 February 2016, accessed 17 July 2017.
Political career A longtime member of the Democratic Party, Jelenković joined the breakaway Liberal Democratic Party in 2005 and served as the leader of its local committee in Niš for several years thereafter."Održana Skupština niškog LDP", 8 March 2011, accessed 17 July 2017. He received the eighty-first position on a coalition electoral list that included the Liberal Democratic Party in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election;Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Либерално демократска партија - Грађански савез Србије - Социјалдемократска унија - Лига социјалдемократа Војводине - Чедомир Јовановић) , Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 July 2017. the list won fifteen mandates, and Jelenković was not included in his party's parliamentary delegation. (From 2000 to 2011, Serbian parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for mandates to be awarded out of numerical order.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 (Article 92), Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017. Jelenković could have been selected as part of his party's delegation notwithstanding his relatively low position, though in fact he was not.) The Liberal Democratic Party contested the 2008 parliamentary election on its own, and Jelenković received the ninety-second position on its list;Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ЛИБЕРАЛНО ДЕМОКРАТСКА ПАРТИЈА - ЧЕДОМИР ЈОВАНОВИЋ) , Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 July 2017. the party won thirteen mandates, and he was once again not selected for its parliamentary group.
Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that parliamentary mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful electoral lists. The Liberal Democratic Party contested the 2012 parliamentary election as part of the Preokret coalition, alternately known in English as Turnover or U-Turn; Jelenković received the forty-third position on its list and, as the list won only nineteen seats, was not elected.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ЧЕДОМИР ЈОВАНОВИЋ - ПРЕОКРЕТ Либерално демократска партија, Српски покрет обнове, Социјалдемократска унија, Богата Србија, Војвођанска партија, Демократска партија Санџака, Зелена еколошка партија - зелени, Партија Бугара Србије) , Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 26 January 2017. He resigned from the Liberal Democratic Party later in the year"Niš: Funkcioneri napuštaju LDP", B92, 4 November 2012, accessed 17 July 2017. and formed a new political party called Nišku priču in 2013. This party endorsed the Social Democratic Party of Serbia in the 2014 election,Aleksandar Stankov, "'Niška priča' podržala SNS", Juzne Vesti, 11 February 2014, accessed 17 July 2017. and it fully merged into the SDPS the following year."Jelenković novi narodni poslanik iz Niša", Juzne Vesti, 7 October 2016, accessed 17 July 2017.
The Social Democratic Party of Serbia contested the 2016 parliamentary election as part of the Aleksandar Vučić – Serbia Is Winning coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party. Jelenković received the 236th position on the coalition's electoral list;Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (АЛЕКСАНДАР ВУЧИЋ - СРБИЈА ПОБЕЂУЈЕ) , Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 February 2017. this was too low a position for direct election to be a realistic prospect, and indeed he was not elected despite the list winning a landslide victory with 131 out of 250 mandates. When SDPS delegate Gordana Predić subsequently resigned her seat to accept a government position, however, he was able to enter parliament as her replacement.Додела мандата » Одлука о додели мандата народних посланика ради попуне упражњених посланичких места у Народној скупштини од 5. октобра 2016. године“) , Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 4 July 2017.Serbia's 2011 electoral reforms stipulate that, in the event of the resignation of a member elected on a coalition list, the vacant mandate will fall to the first candidate on the list from the same party who was not awarded a mandate. See Law on the Election of Members of the Parliament (2000, as amended 2011) (Article 92) made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017. His term officially began on October 6, 2016. Jelenković is a member of the parliamentary committee on labour, social issues, social inclusion, and poverty reduction; a deputy member of three other committees; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Japan, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.PREDRAG Dr JELENKOVIC, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 17 July 2017.
Jelenković was also a member of the Niš municipal council from 2012 to 2016, becoming leader of its committee on administrative issues in 2014."Jelenković preuzeo skupštinski odbor", 18 December 2014, accessed 17 July 2017.
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