Rodoljub Džamić (; born 31 May 1951) is a Serbian politician. He was a member of the National Assembly of Serbia for two terms between 1991 and 1997 and has served as the mayor of Vrnjačka Banja on three occasions. For most of his political career, Džamić has been a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS).
Early life and private career Džamić was born in the village of Velika Vrbnica in the municipality of Aleksandrovac, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He attended secondary school in nearby Trstenik, graduated from the University of Niš Faculty of Law, and later passed the bar exam in Belgrade. He worked with PPT Trstenik from 1969 to 1971 and with the republic and Kraljevo SUP from 1972 to 1981.
He was president of the IS of the municipal assembly of Vrnjačka Banja from 1982 to 1986, and from 1987 to 1999 he was director of the JP Bell Izvor.RODOLJUB DŽAMIĆ, , Municipality of Vrnjačka Banja, accessed 22 November 2022.
Politician In socialist Yugoslavia Džamić became politically active when Serbia was still a one-party socialist state. He was elected to the Vrnjačka Banja municipal assembly in the 1989 municipal elections and was afterward chosen as its president, a position that was at the time equivalent to mayor. He served in this role for the next two years.RODOLJUB DŽAMIĆ, , Municipality of Vrnjačka Banja, accessed 22 November 2022. In 1990, he presided over a major event in which the television program Jeux sans frontières held competitions in the municipality."Zašto je 1990. bila 'zlatna' godina za Vrnjačku Banju", Radio Television of Serbia, 9 July 2020, accessed 22 November 2022.
Socialist Party of Serbia Serbia became a multi-party democracy in 1990, and Džamić joined the SPS on its formation. He was elected to the national assembly for the Vrnjačka Banja division in the 1990 Serbian parliamentary election and took his seat when the new parliament convened in 1991. The SPS won a majority government in the election, and Džamić served as a supporter of the administration.A 2006 article in Politika stated that Džamić "did not particularly stand out" in his term parliamentary term. See M. Čekerevac, "Koštunica i Ilić očekuju novi mandat", Politika, 1 December 2006, accessed 22 November 2022.
Serbia introduced a system of proportional representation for parliamentary elections in 1992. Džamić received the eighteenth position on the SPS's list in the Kragujevac division and was not chosen for a mandate when the list won eleven seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3 Крагујевац), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 30 July 2021.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 30 July 2021.Službeni Glasnik (Republike Srbije), 25 January 1993 (Volume 49 Number 7), p. 194. (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds would be distributed amongst other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. Džamić's could have been awarded a mandate despite his low position on the list, 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.
He was promoted to the tenth position on Socialist Party's list for Kragujevac in the 1993 Serbian parliamentary election and was this time awarded a mandate when the list won twelve seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3 Крагујевац), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 30 July 2021.Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 30 July 2021.Službeni glasnik (Republike Srbije), Volume 50 Number 16 (11 February 1994), p. 194. The SPS formed a coalition government with New Democracy (Nova demokratija, ND) after the election, and Džamić again served as a government supporter. He was a member of the assembly committee for trade and tourism and the committee for environmental protection.Službeni glasnik (Republike Srbije), Volume 50 Number 16 (11 February 1994), p. 356.
Džamić was re-elected to the Vrnjačka Banja assembly in the 1996 Serbian local elections; the SPS won a narrow majority in the municipality, and he was chosen afterward for another term as mayor.Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 59.RODOLJUB DŽAMIĆ, , Municipality of Vrnjačka Banja, accessed 22 November 2022. He later appeared in the eighth position (out of eight) on the SPS's list for the smaller, redistributed Kraljevo division in the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election and was not chosen for a new national assembly mandate 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 (21 Краљево), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 9 September 2021.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, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.PRVA SEDNICA, 03.12.1997., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 12 January 2022.
Džamić was the mayor of Vrnjačka Banja during the Kosovo War and the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in early 1999; during this time, the municipality lost much of its regular tourist revenue and became a refugee centre for people fleeing bombardment in other communities."NEKA DRUGA VRNJACKA BANJA", NIN, 3 June 1999, accessed 22 November 2022. Later in the year, the opposition Alliance for Change group led a series of protests throughout Serbia against Slobodan Milošević's regime and the continued rule of the SPS. In some areas, the state apparatus responded with violence. Džamić did not take this approach in Vrnjačka Banja; it was noted that he voluntarily agreed to "sit in the dock" and respond to citizens' questions."Serbian police divided over use of force at rallies - opposition official," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European - Political, 1 October 1999 (Source: Text of report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA). In early 2000, Džamić was temporarily placed on an international sanctions list and forbidden from travelling to European Union countries."Prosireni spisak lica koja ne mogu dobiti vize za zemlje EU", B92, 1 March 2000, accessed 22 November 2022.
Milošević was defeated by Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Demokratska opozicija Srbije, DOS) candidate Vojislav Koštunica in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, a watershed moment in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics. The DOS also defeated the SPS in Vrnjačka Banja in the concurrent 2000 Serbian local elections, and Džamić's second tenure as mayor came to an end.Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, pp. 65-66. He was personally re-elected to the local assembly and led the SPS group in opposition."Samo proceduralna greška", Glas javnosti, 22 September 2000, accessed 22 November 2022.
Serbia's government fell after Milošević's defeat in the Yugoslavian election, and a a new Serbian parliamentary election was held in December 2000. Serbia's electoral system was reformed prior to the vote, such that the entire country became a single electoral division and all mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions, irrespective 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, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017. Džamić appeared in the 250th position (out of 250) on the SPS's list, which was largely alphabetical.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска опозиција Србије – др Војислав Коштуница (3 Социјалистичка партија Србије – Слободан Милошевић), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 2 July 2021. The list won thirty-seven seats, and he was not chosen for a new mandate.PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, 11 January 2001, accessed 18 July 2021.
Out of the SPS Džamić left the SPS in either 2003 or 2004 and formed a new local political party called Znamo kako ("We Know How").
For the 2004 local elections, Serbia introduced the direct election of mayors, separated the offices of mayor and assembly president, and introduced a system of proportional representation for municipal assemblies. Džamić was elected to a third term as mayor in Vrnjačka Banja; his party also won a narrow victory in the local assembly election, and he formed a coalition government afterward with several other parties.Direktorijum lokalnih samouprava u Srbiji, Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), September 2005, p. 378. The direct election of mayors proved to be a short-lived experiment and was withdrawn in the next local electoral cycle four years later.
In 2006, Džamić oversaw the return of a statue of Alexander I of Yugoslavia to Vrnjačka Park in the municipality. The statue had first been consecrated in 1936 and was removed by Yugoslavian authorities after World War II."Kralj Ujedinitelj opet u banji", Glas javnosti, 31 July 2006.
Džamić brought his local party into an alliance with New Serbia (Nova Srbija, NS) in late 2006 and appeared in the 206th position on a coalition electoral list led by New Serbia and the Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska stranka Srbije, DSS) in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election. The list won forty-seven seats, and he was not given a new parliamentary mandate.M. Čekerevac, "Koštunica i Ilić očekuju novi mandat", Politika, 1 December 2006, accessed 22 November 2022.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (5 Демократска странка Србије - Нова Србија - др Војислав Коштуница), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 15 February 2021.14 February 2007 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 22 November 2022.