The Serb Democratic Party (, abbr. SDS), alternately known as the Serb Democratic Party of Serbia (, abbr. SDSS), was a minor political party that existed in Serbia between 1990 and 2003. On two occasions (i.e., 1990 and 2003), the party won representation in the Serbian parliament. After the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election, the SDS dissolved itself into the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).

The SDS of Serbia had connections to parties of the same name in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but unlike those parties it had only a marginal influence on the political culture of the region.

Early years The Serb Democratic Party was established in 1990 after the re-introduction of multi-party politics to Serbia. Its first leader was Anđelko Ležajić. The party fielded a number of candidates in the 1990 Serbian parliamentary election and received 32,927 votes (0.68%) in total. One of the party's candidates was elected: Tode Vojvodić in the constituency of Stara Pazova and Pećinci.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године (Листе кандидата за народне посланике Народне скупштине Републике Србије, по изборним јединицама), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 28 December 2024.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 28 December 2024.

During the 1991–93 Serbian parliament, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) disintegrated and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s began. Ležajić later recalled seeing Jovan Rašković, leader of the SDS in Croatia, urging Serbs to use methods of Gandhian resistance to win their own state in the predominantly Serb areas of Croatia and Bosnia.ЧЕТИРИ КРАЈИШНИКА: ЈОВАН РАШКОВИЋ, p. 2. (Rašković was ultimately replaced by more hardline elements in the party.) In a Serbian parliamentary debate in March 1991, during the opening stages of the Croatian War, Vojvodić accused the Serbian government of abandoning the Serbs of Croatia while Croatian authorities were arming militants associated with the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), who in turn were harassing the Serb community.VUKOVARSKA TRAGEDIJA 1991, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, (Belgrade, 2007), pp. 191-192.

The SDS participated in the May 1992 Yugoslavian parliamentary election, winning 87,589 votes (2.28%) and no seats.ИЗБОРИ '92: КОНАЧНИ РЕЗУЛТАТИ, Republic of Serbia and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (1992), pp. 8, 24-26). The election took place under a system of mixed proportional representation; the leader of the party's electoral list was Jovan Rašković, who had by this time relocated to Serbia.Službeni glasnik, Republic of Serbia, Volume 58 Number 33 (27 May 1992), p . 2187. Rašković died in July 1992. The SDS's leader in Serbia after this time was Velimir Branković.JPRS Report: East Europe, 14 September 1992, p. 82.

For the December 1992 Yugoslavian parliamentary election, held under a system of full proportional representation, the SDS formed an alliance with Milan Paroški's People's Party called Srpska Opozicija (English: Serbian Opposition). The alliance won 200,044 votes (4.3%) and no seats.ИЗБОРИ '92: ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (1993), p. 20. In the concurrent 1992 Serbian parliamentary election, also held under a system of full proportional representation, the SDS ran on its own and won 9,771 votes and no seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (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 7 February 2024. The party's main area of support in the republican election was the Novi Sad constituency, where Branković led the electoral list.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Нови Сад), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.

In the 1993 Serbian parliamentary election, the SDS won 15,447 votes and once again won no seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (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 7 February 2024. The party's electoral lists identified the writer Radomir Smiljanić as its leader during this time.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Нови Сад), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.

Merger talks and later history In 1996, Velimir Branković represented the SDS in negotiations with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), the Serbian Liberal Party (SLS), and the Serbian National Renewal (SNO) to create a united "Serb Democratic Party of the Serbian Lands." Although this initiative was ultimately not successful, the SNO made a decision at its 1997 convention to merge into the new party under Radovan Karadžić's leadership. In practice, this meant that the SNO operated afterward as part of the SDS in Serbia.

Dragoljub Kojčić became the leader of the SDS in Serbia in 1997. The SNO retained its autonomy in the party and ultimately clashed with Kojčić's leadership. In the late 1990s, SNO leader Mirko Jović negotiated with Democratic Party (DS) leader Zoran Đinđić to bring the SDS into Đinđić's "Alliance for Change," a coalition of parties opposed to the continued rule of Slobodan Milošević and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). According to Jović, the main board of the SDS voted to join Đinđić's coalition but that Kojčić refused to implement the decision, leading to a party split and the departure of the SNO.Mirjana R. Milenković, "Srpska narodna obnova prva je nacionalna stranka nastala nakon pada komunizma u Srbiji: Jedan od osnivača je i otac premijera Miloša Vučevića", Danas, 27 July 2024, accessed 28 December 2024.

After the fall of Slobodan Milošević in October 2000, a transitional government was established in Serbia comprising the Socialist Party, the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), and the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS). Although the SDS was not formally aligned with any of these groups, Kojčić was appointed as deputy minister of relations with Serbs outside Serbia, a role he held until a new government was formed in January 2001.ПОЛИТИЧКИ САВЕТ, , New Serbia, accessed 28 December 2024.Jasmina Lukač, "Strela vremena", Danas, 5 March 2013, accessed 28 December 2024.

Dissolution into the DSS In November 2003, the Democratic Party of Serbia announced that Kojčić would appear on its electoral list for the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election as a SDS candidate."Na listi DSS Nikola Milošević, Ljušić, Sanda Rašković", B92, 28 December 2024. He ultimately received the thirty-first position on the list and was given a parliamentary mandate when the list won fifty-three seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3 ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА СРБИЈЕ - ВОЈИСЛАВ КОШТУНИЦА), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024."Skupština čeka demokrate", , Glas javnosti, 13 January 2004, accessed 28 December 2024. The SDS appears to have dissolved soon after the election, and Kojčić served afterward as a DSS member of the national assembly.Списак народних посланика, , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, 20 April 2004, accessed 28 December 2024.Jasmina Lukač, "Strela vremena", Danas, 5 March 2013, accessed 28 December 2024.

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