Rade Bajić (; born 26 September 1947) is a Serbian politician. He was a delegate in the Serbian parliament from 2001 to 2004, served on the Novi Sad city council in 2012, and was elected to several terms in the Novi Sad city assembly. Bajić is a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).
Early life and private career Bajić was born in the settlement of Gerzovo in the municipality of Mrkonjić Grad, in what was then the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He is a graduated economist and was at one time the president of the Borac football club in Klisa, a neighbourhood of Novi Sad.Member of the City Council for Transport and Roads, , City of Novi Sad, accessed 6 July 2025.
Politician The Miloševic Years (1992–2000) Bajić was elected to the Novi Sad city assembly in the May 1992 Serbian local elections, winning over a single opponent in the city's thirtieth division.Magyar Szó, 2 June 1992, p. 7. The Socialists won a landslide majority with fifty-eight out of seventy seats, and he supported the local administration in the assembly.Magyar Szó, 16 June 1992, p. 7.
The May 1992 vote was boycotted by several opposition parties, and widespread doubts about its legitimacy led the Serbian government to call new elections in December 1992. Bajić was re-elected for the thirtieth division as the Socialists fell to twenty-one seats overall.Magyar Szó, 16 December 1992, p. 11.Member of the City Council for Transport and Roads, , City of Novi Sad, accessed 6 July 2025.Magyar Szó, 12 January 1993, p. 7. The SPS formed a government with the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS) after the election, and Bajić remained a government supporter. In 1993, he was appointed as director of the public heating utility Toplana; in this capacity, he faced criticism for fuel shortages and freezing apartments during the period of sanctions against Yugoslavia.Borba, 17 July 1993, p. 36.Borba, 22 December 1994, p. 22.
Bajić was re-elected for Novi Sad's thirtieth division in the 1996 Serbian local elections, in which the Socialists fell to only six seats overall.Magyar Szó, 19 November 1996, p. 7. The Zajedno coalition formed a new government after the election, and the Socialists moved into opposition. Bajić led the SPS group in the city assembly.Borba, 20 June 2000, p. 16. Despite the change in government, he continued to serve as director of Toplana until 1998; a 1997 news report identified him as the only utility director in the city who was a member of the Socialist Party.Member of the City Council for Transport and Roads, , City of Novi Sad, accessed 6 July 2025.Borba, 22 July 1997, p. 2.
During the 1990s, the political landscape of Serbia and Yugoslavia was dominated by the authoritarian rule of SPS leader Slobodan Milošević and his allies. Milošević was defeated by Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) candidate Vojislav Koštunica in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election and subsequently fell from power after popular protests, a watershed moment in Serbian politics.
Bajić was elected to a fourth term in the Novi Sad assembly in the 2000 Serbian local elections, which took place concurrently with the Yugoslavian vote. The Socialists, operating in an alliance with the Yugoslav Left (JUL), increased their representation in the city assembly to ten seats but still lost to the DOS by a significant margin.Magyar Szó, 4 October 2000, p. 8.Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, pp. 46-47. This was the last local election cycle in which candidates were elected for single-member constituencies; all subsequent local elections in Novi Sad have been held under proportional representation. Bajić again led the Socialist group in the city assembly for the term that followed.ODBORNICI I ODBORNICKE GRUPE, , City of Novi Sad, accessed 6 July 2025.
Bajić ran for Novi Sad's seventh division in the 2000 Vojvodina provincial election, which was also held concurrently with the Yugoslavian vote, and finished a distant second against the DOS's candidate.Magyar Szó, 27 September 2000, p. 4.Magyar Szó, 11 October 2000, p. 5.
After the fall of Milošević (2000–20) The Serbian government fell after Milošević's defeat in the Yugoslavian election, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was called for December 2000. Prior to the vote, Serbia's electoral laws were changed so that the entire country became a single electoral district and all mandates were assigned to candidates on successful electoral 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 6 June 2021. Bajić appeared in the ninth position on the Socialist Party's list, which was mostly alphabetical.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3 Социјалистичка партија Србије – Слободан Милошевић), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. The Socialists won thirty-seven seats, and Bajić was awarded a mandate, taking his seat when the assembly convened in January 2001.PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 6 January 2025. The DOS won a landslide victory with 176 out of 250 seats, and the Socialists served in opposition for the term that followed. Bajić chaired the assembly committee on relations with Serbs outside Serbia.Детаљи о народном посланику: БАЈИЋ, РАДЕ, , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 July 2025.
Bajić was not a candidate in the 2003 parliamentary election, and his parliamentary term ended when the new assembly met in early 2004. The SPS fell to only three seats in Novi Sad in the 2004 local elections, and his term in the city assembly also came to an end in that year.Lokalni Izbori – Republika Srbija.Lokalni Izbori 2004; Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; pp. 12, 63-64; Izbori za odbornike u skupštini grada Novog Sada, , City Electoral Commission of Novi Sad, 16 September 2004, accessed 23 July 2021.ODBORNICI I ODBORNICKE GRUPE, , City of Novi Sad, accessed 2 July 2021.
From 2005 to 2010, he was the commercial manager for the Toplana utility.Member of the City Council for Transport and Roads, , City of Novi Sad, accessed 6 July 2025.
Bajić appeared in the thirty-eighth position on the Socialist Party's list in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (11 Социјалистичка партија Србије), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. The list won sixteen seats, and he was not given a mandate.14 February 2007 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 5 March 2017. He later received the eighth position on the SPS's list for Novi Sad in the 2008 local elections and did not return to the assembly when the list fell below the electoral threshold for assembly representation.Službeni List (Grada Novog Sada), Volume 27 Number 16 (30 April 2008), p. 298.Službeni List (Grada Novog Sada), Volume 27 Number 19 (20 May 2008), pp. 333-334.
Serbia's electoral laws were again reformed in 2011, such that all mandates in elections held under proportional representation were assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order. Bajić appeared in the thirteenth position on the SPS's list in the 2012 local elections and was not elected when the list won seven seats.Službeni List (Grada Novog Sada), Volume 31 Number 17 (24 April 2012), p. 550.Službeni List (Grada Novog Sada), Volume 31 Number 22 (23 May 2012), p. 651. An alliance led by the Democratic Party (DS) won a narrow victory in the election and established a coalition government that included the Socialists. Bajić was appointed to the city council (i.e., the executive branch of the municipal government) with responsibility for traffic and roads."Oštre kritike na račun gradonačelnika Pavličića", Danas, 1 July 2012, accessed 6 July 2025. His term in office was brief. The DS-led administration lost its assembly majority later the year, and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) formed a new coalition government. Although the Socialists were part of the new administration, Bajić was dropped from the executive."Miloš Vučević novi gradonačelnik Novog Sada", 021.rs, 13 September 2012, accessed 6 July 2021.
He later appeared on the Socialist Party's list in the 2016 and 2020 local elections, although he was not elected on either occasion.
Electoral record Provincial (Vojvodina)
Local (Novi Sad)
Notes
References