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József Varga (Vojvodina politician)

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József F. Varga (Serbian: Јожеф Ф. Варга, romanized: Jožef F. Varga; born 22 February 1959) is a former politician in Serbia from the country's Hungarian community. He was a member of the Assembly of Vojvodina from 1992 to 2004 and has held prominent municipal office in Bečej.

Private career

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Varga is from Bačko Petrovo Selo in Bečej. He is a workplace safety engineer and has been president of the community's volunteer fire department for many years.[1][2][3]

Politician

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Assembly of Vojvodina

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Varga entered political life as a member of the Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians (Demokratska zajednica vojvođanskih Mađara, DZVM), which was at the time the dominant political party representing Hungarians in the province. He was elected to the Assembly of Vojvodina for Bečej's first electoral division under its banner in the May 1992 provincial election and was re-elected for the same constituency in the December 1992 election. During this period, politics in Vojvodina and Serbia generally were dominated by the Socialist Party of Serbia.

The DZVM experienced a serious split in 1994, and several prominent members joined the breakaway Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (Savez vojvođanskih Mađara, SVM), which ultimately replaced the DZVM as the main party of the community. Varga joined the SVM and was re-elected under its banner in the 1996 provincial election.

The SVM contested the 2000 provincial election as part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milošević. The DOS won a landslide majority, and Varga was elected to a fourth term. He was the deputy leader of the SVM group in the sitting of the assembly that followed.[4]

As a leading representative of Vojvodina's Hungarian community, Varga condemned a June 2004 incident in Temerin in which a group of Hungarians attacked a Serb in an apparent hate crime. Varga described the attackers as "hooligans" and called for appropriate punishments.[5]

Vojvodina adopted a system of mixed proportional representation after the 2000 provincial election. Varga appeared on the SVM's electoral list in the 2004 provincial election and on the list of the Hungarian Coalition in the 2008 provincial election. He did not take a mandate on either occasion.[6]

Municipal politics

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Varga was elected to the Bečej municipal assembly in the December 1992 Serbian local elections and re-elected in the 1996 local elections and the 2000 local elections. After the DOS's victory in the latter campaign, he was appointed as the municipality's deputy mayor.[7] He served in this role for the next four years.[8]

He ran for mayor of Bečej in the 2004 Serbian local elections as the candidate of the SVM and the Christian Democratic European Movement, and was defeated in the second round of voting.[9] He also appeared on the SVM's coalition list in the concurrent municipal assembly election (local elections having also shifted to proportional representation after 2000), though he did not take a mandate afterwards.[10][11] He served on the municipal council (i.e., the executive branch of the municipal government) from 5 May to 1 December 2005.[12]

In November 2020, he was appointed to Bečej's headquarters for emergency situations.[13]

At the republic level

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Varga was a candidate for the National Assembly of Serbia on five occasions. He appeared on the DZVM's electoral list for the Zrenjanin division in the 1992 and 1993 parliamentary elections and on the SVM's list for the smaller, redistributed division in the 1997 election. From 1992 to 2000, one-third of parliamentary mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, and the remaining two-thirds were assigned to candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. Varga was not listed high enough on any of these occasions to receive an automatic mandate, nor was he given an optional mandate afterwards.[14][15][16]

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2000, such that the entire country was counted as a single electoral division and all mandates were distributed to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties and coalitions, irrespective of numerical order.[17] The SVM contested the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election as part of the Together for Tolerance coalition, and Varga appeared on the coalition's list in the thirty-fifth position.[18] The list did not cross the electoral threshold to win representation in the assembly.

Following the 2003 election, Serbia's electoral laws were further reformed such that the electoral threshold was waived for lists representing national minority communities. The SVM fielded its own list in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election, and Varga appeared in the eighty-first position.[19] The list won three mandates, and he was not included afterward in the party's assembly delegation.[20]

Electoral record

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Provincial (Assembly of Vojvodina)

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2000 Vojvodina assembly election
Bečej I (constituency seat)[21]
Candidate Party or Coalition Result
József F. Varga (incumbent) Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Affiliation: Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians) elected
Aleksandar Pavlović Serbian Radical Party
other candidates
1996 Vojvodina assembly election
Bečej I (constituency seat)[22]
Candidate Party or Coalition Result
József F. Varga (incumbent) Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians elected
other candidates
December 1992 Vojvodina assembly election
Bečej I (constituency seat)[23]
Candidate Party or Coalition Result
József F. Varga (incumbent) Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians elected
József Kozma Socialist Party of Serbia
Veljko Matanović Citizens' Group
Zoltan Smieško Citizens' Group: Alliance for the Citizens of the Municipality of Bečej
May 1992 Vojvodina assembly election
Bečej I (constituency seat)[24]
Candidate Party or Coalition Result
József F. Varga Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians elected
József Kozma Socialist Party of Serbia

Municipal (Bečej)

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2004 Bečej municipal election
Mayor of Bečej - First and Second Round Results[25]
Candidate Party or Coalition Votes % Votes %
Đorđe Predin Badža People's Democratic Party 1,879 14.26 7,215 53.31
József F. Varga Coalition: Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and Christian Democratic European Movement 3,068 23.29 6,319 46.69
Dragan Živkov Džaja Serbian Radical Party 1,828 13.87
Zoran Subotički G17 Plus 1,821 13.82
Sándor Páll Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians 1,500 11.39
Živan Gavrilović Socialist Party of Serbia 1,239 9.40
Zoran Stojšin (incumbent) Democratic Party 937 7.12
Šandor Reperger Strength of Serbia Movement 583 4.43
Đorđe Tot Citizens' Group 320 2.43
Total valid votes 13,175 100 13,534 100
2000 Bečej municipal election
Bečej Municipal Assembly – Bačko Petrovo Selo II (first-past-the-post)[26]
Candidate Party or Coalition Votes %
József F. Varga (incumbent) Democratic Opposition of Serbia–Dr. Vojislav Koštunica (Affiliation: Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians) 374 51.66
Gabor Hajnal Christian Democratic Movement of Vojvodina Hungarians 205 28.31
Erika Horvat Arežina Citizens' Group 99 13.67
Ivan Morošev Serbian Radical Party 31 4.28
Robert Pece Socialist Party of Serbia–Yugoslav Left–Slobodan Milošević 15 2.07
Total valid votes 724 100
1996 Bečej municipal election
Bečej Municipal Assembly – Bačko Petrovo Selo (division unspecified)[27]
Candidate Party or Coalition Result
József F. Varga (incumbent) Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians elected in the second round
other candidates
December 1992 Bečej municipal election
Bečej Municipal Assembly – Seat 34: Bačko Petrovo Selo[28]
Candidate Party or Coalition Result
József F. Varga Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians elected
Ištvan Žolnai Citizens' Group

References

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  1. ^ ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2 Зрењанин), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Tradicija vatrogasaca u Bačkom Petrovom Selu", Radio Television of Vojvodina, 28 September 2013, accessed 29 July 2021.
  3. ^ Vukašin Ljubojev, "Dobrovoljno vatrogasno društvo čuva atare Bačkog Petrovog Sela", TV Bečej, 18 July 2019, accessed 29 July 2021.
  4. ^ "Hungarian party walks out of Vojvodina Assembly over papers' founding rights," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 14 May 2004 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1314 gmt 13 May 04).
  5. ^ "Vojvodina: Ethnic Hungarian MPs condemn attempted murder of Serb," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 29 June 2004 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian, 1053 gmt 29 Jun 04).
  6. ^ Varga received the fifty-ninth position (out of sixty) in the 2004 election and the thirty-eighth position in 2008. During this period, proportional mandates were awarded at the discretion of successful parties or coalitions, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order. Varga's position on the lists had no specific bearing on his chances of election. See РЕШЕЊЕ О УТВРЂИВАЊУ ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ ЗА ИЗБОРЕ ЗА ПОСЛАНИКЕ У СКУПШТИНУ АУТОНОМНЕ ПОКРАЈИНЕ ВОЈВОДИНЕ, 19. СЕПТЕМБРА 2004. ГОДИНЕ, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina; and Изборне листе за изборе за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине 11. мај 2008. године – Изборна листа 7 - МАЂАРСКА КОАЛИЦИЈА – ИШТВАН ПАСТОР, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 July 2021.
  7. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 36 Number 9 (26 November 2000), p. 121.
  8. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 1 (21 October 2004), p. 18.
  9. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 5 (10 September 2004), p. 27; Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 7 (20 September 2004), p. 3; Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 8 (7 October 2004), p. 3.
  10. ^ Varga appeared in the twenty-ninth position on the list. The list won four mandates. See Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 5 (10 September 2004), p. 125; Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 8 (7 October 2004), p. 176.
  11. ^ For this municipal election, one-third of mandates were awarded to successful parties and coalitions in numerical order and the other two-thirds were distributed to candidates at the discretion of the parties and coalitions. Varga could have taken a seat despite his low list position. See Law on Local Elections, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 33/2002; made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 29 May 2021.
  12. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 41 Number 12 (2 December 2005), p. 238.
  13. ^ Tanja Drapšin, "Седница СО Бечеј: Нови директор Туристичке организације", Bečejski Dani, 13 November 2020, accessed 29 July 2021.
  14. ^ Varga appeared in the thirteenth position on the DVZM list in Zrenjanin in 1992. The list won seven mandates. See ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2 Зрењанин) and 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, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 July 2021.
  15. ^ Varga appeared in the eighteenth position on the DZVM list in 1993. The list won five mandates. See ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2 Зрењанин) and 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, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 July 2021.
  16. ^ Varga received the fourth position on the list, which won a single mandate. See ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Зрењанин) and Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године and Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 July 2021.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (12. ЗАЈЕДНО ЗА ТОЛЕРАНЦИЈУ - ЧАНАК, КАСА, ЉАЈИЋ), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 July 2021.
  19. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (8. Савез војвођанских Мађара - Јожеф Каса), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 July 2021.
  20. ^ 14 February 2007 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 May 2021.
  21. ^ Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине одржаних 3. и 17. новембра 1996. године, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 July 2021; Velika Srbija [Radical Party publication], Volume 11 Number 1201 (Belgrade, September 2000), p. 6.
  22. ^ Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине одржаних 3. и 17. новембра 1996. године, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 July 2021.
  23. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 28 Number 11 (16 December 1992), p. 192; Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине на превременим изборима одржаним 20. децембра 1992. године, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 July 2021.
  24. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 28 Number 2 (22 May 1992), p. 47; Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине 31. маја и 14. јуна 1992. године, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 July 2021.
  25. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 5 (10 September 2004), p. 27; Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 7 (20 September 2004), p. 3; Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 40 Number 8 (7 October 2004), p. 3.
  26. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 36 Number 6 (14 September 2000), p. 73; Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 36 Number 8 (23 October 2000), p. 113
  27. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 32 Number 7 (26 November 1996), p. 89.
  28. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 28 Number 11 (16 December 1992), p. 191; Službeni List (Opštine Bečej), Volume 29 Number 1 (15 January 1993), p. 2.
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