Branislav Damjanov (; born 20 August 1965) is a Serbian politician. He was the mayor of Nova Crnja from 2000 to 2004 and served in the Vojvodina provincial assembly from 2008 to 2016. During his time as an elected official, Damjanov was a member of the Democratic Party (DS).
Early life and career Damjanov was born in the village of Srpska Crnja in the municipality of Nova Crnja, in what was then the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in the Socialist Republic of Serbia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He graduated from the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Agriculture in 1990 as an agricultural engineer.Заменик Предсеника Општине, , Municipality of Nova Crnja, accessed 29 March 2025.
Politician Early years in municipal office (1996–2008) Damjanov was first elected to the Nova Crnja municipal assembly in the 1996 Serbian local elections. The Democratic Party contested this electoral cycle as part of the Zajedno coalition, which won seven out of twenty-six seats in Nova Crnja, finishing second against the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 51.
He was re-elected in the 2000 local elections, which the DS contested as part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition. The DOS won a majority victory in Nova Crnja with fourteen seats; Damjanov was chosen afterward as assembly speaker, an office that was at the time equivalent to mayor, and served in this role for the next four years.Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 37.Заменик Предсеника Општине, , Municipality of Nova Crnja, accessed 29 March 2025.
Serbia introduced the direct election of mayors and a system of proportional representation for local assembly elections in 2004. Damjanov did not seek re-election as mayor but led the DS list for the Nova Crnja assembly and was re-elected when the list won five seats.Službeni List (Opštine Nova Crnja), 2004 Number 7 (10 September 2004), pp. 75-76.Službeni List (Opština Nova Crnja), 2004 Number 8 (22 September 2004), p. 85.Službeni List (Opština Nova Crnja), 2004 Number 10 (8 November 2004), p. 104. The election resulted in a divided government: the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS) won the mayoral election but could not command a majority of seats in the assembly, and the local government was dominated by the DS. Damjanov was not a member of the local administration but supported it in the assembly.Direktorijum lokalnih samouprava u Srbiji, Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), September 2005, pp. 224-225. the direct election of mayors proved to be a short-lived experiment and was discarded with the 2008 local election cycle.
Provincial representative (2008–16) Vojvodina held the 2008 provincial election under a system of mixed proportional representation, with half the members elected for single-member constituency seats. The DS contested the election as the main party in the For a European Vojvodina alliance; Damjanov was the Democratic Party's candidate in the Nova Crnja constituency and was elected in the second round of voting. For a European Vojvodina won a majority of seats, and Damjanov served as a government supporter.Deputies' Groups, , Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, accessed 29 March 2025.
He also led the For a European Vojvodina list for Nova Crnja in the 2008 local elections.Službeni List (Opštine Nova Crnja), 2008 Volume 18 (8 May 2008), p. 19. The alliance won a plurality victory with eight seats and led a local coalition government; Damjanov was chosen as the municipality's deputy mayor.Заменик Предсеника Општине, , Municipality of Nova Crnja, accessed 29 March 2025.
Damjanov was re-elected for Nova Crnja in the 2012 provincial election. The DS's alliance won a strong plurality victory and afterward formed a new coalition government; Damjanov again served as a government supporter and was a member of the privatization committee and the agriculture committee.Бранислав Дамјанов, , Assembly of Vojvodina, accessed 29 March 2025. He also appeared in the second position on the DS list for Nova Crnja in the 2012 local elections and was re-elected when the list won eleven seats.Službeni List (Opštine Nova Crnja), Volume 22 Number 5 (23 April 2012), p. 82.ЛОКАЛНИ ИЗБОРИ 2012., Republic of Serbia – Bureau of Statistics, pp. 12, 50.
Vojvodina switched to a system of full proportional representation with the 2016 provincial election. Damjanov appeared in the forty-fourth position on the DS's list and was not re-elected when the list fell to only ten seats.Изборне листе за изборе за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне покрајине Војводине (Изборна листа 2 - ЗА ВОЈВОДИНУ РАДА И ЗНАЊА – ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА, ДСХВ, НОВА, ЗЕП-ЗЕЛЕНИ – ДР БОЈАН ПАЈТИЋ) , Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 11 May 2018. In the concurrent 2016 local election in Nova Crnja, he appeared in the seventh position on the DS's list and was not re-elected when the list fell to two seats.Službeni List (Opštine Nova Crnja), Volume 25 Number 5 (13 April 2016), p. 100.Službeni List (Opštine Nova Crnja), Volume 25 Number 6 (25 April 2016), pp. 3-4; Službeni List (Opštine Nova Crnja), Volume 25 Number 7 (27 April 2016), p. 1.
Since 2016 After the 2024 Serbian local elections, Damjanov was appointed as advisor to the Nova Crnja local government on agriculture and environmental protection.Obaveštenje o podnetom zahtevu za odlučivanje o potrebi procene uticaja projekta na životnu sredinu Polet faza 1, Municipality of Nova Crnja, 14 November 2024, accessed 29 March 2025.
Electoral record Provincial (Vojvodina)
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