Serbian media regulator deadlocked 4-3 in both rounds
The REM Council's second constitutive session ran about three hours and ended with no chairman. Milos Garic took four votes and Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic three, twice over. Six were needed.
The Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) failed at its second attempt to choose a chairman. The second constitutive session opened on July 30 at 1 p.m., ran for about three hours, and closed after two rounds of voting that produced the same split.
Two candidates were put forward for chairman of the REM Council: Milos Garic and Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic. Garic took four votes in the first round, Valic Nedeljkovic three. The second round did not shift a single vote. At least six votes are required, so neither candidate cleared the bar, and the deputy chairman post on the same agenda went unfilled as well.
Seven Council members attended. Valic Nedeljkovic chaired the session as the body’s oldest member. REM had announced the meeting in a statement on July 27.
Why are four votes not enough to elect the REM chairman?
The six-vote threshold sits above a simple majority, and the body is currently operating with eight members. The ninth seat, reserved for a representative of national minorities, has not been filled. Under that arithmetic any four-to-three split lands two votes short, whoever the names on the ballot happen to be. Movement depends on a deal inside the Council rather than on another round held under the same conditions.
Two sessions in ten days, the same number
The first constitutive session was held on July 20. Garic and Mileva Malesic were the candidates then, both drew four votes, and no chairman emerged. Malesic later withdrew, while Garic stayed in the race at the urging of several Council members. The second attempt therefore ran with a fresh pairing of names, and finished on the identical count.
After the vote, Garic said he regretted that no solution had been found and that electing a chairman was a matter for the institution and the public rather than for his own candidacy.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Valic Nedeljkovic said the Council would carry on.
Nastavicemo rad, u drugoj polovini avgusta je sledeca sednica. (We will continue our work, the next session is in the second half of August.)
She gave no exact date.
A regulator without a chairman since November 2024
The mandate of the previous REM Council expired in November 2024. The new lineup was elected this July and has now tried twice in ten days to install a chairman, stalling on four votes each time.
The next attempt is set for the second half of August. Until then the electronic media regulator carries an empty ninth seat and no elected chairman, and the gap to be bridged is two votes, not one.
