REM Sets Third Vote for Chair on September 1
The Council of Serbia's Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) is making a third attempt to elect a chair, with a session set for September 1 after two failed votes in July.
The Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) will hold its third constitutive session on September 1, according to the invitation the body has published. As with the previous two, the session will be open to the public, though the notice does not list an agenda.
A third attempt after two failed votes
The first two constitutive sessions, held on July 20 and July 30, did not end with a chair being elected. Milos Garic and Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic were the two candidates, and neither secured the six votes needed for a qualified majority. The first session opened at 11 a.m. and unanimously adopted an agenda covering the election of a chair and deputy chair and an agreement on how the Council would operate. The portion of the meeting where members voted on the chair was closed to the public, and the vote itself was secret.
Who sits on the REM Council
The Council is made up of Milos Garic, Stevica Smederevac, Milan Petkovic, Snezana Miljkovic, Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic, Ira Prodanov Krajisnik, Mileva Malesic and Rodoljub Sabic. Valic Nedeljkovic presides over the sessions as the oldest member.
That is also the one point where the two outlets covering the story disagree. Radio Television of Serbia’s website reports that the Council, in this composition, has eight members in total. N1, on the other hand, writes that eight of nine planned seats have been filled, with the ninth, reserved for a representative of national minorities, still vacant.
This Council took shape after Serbia’s National Assembly declared invalid the resignations of four of its members. The mandate of the previous Council expired back in November 2024, leaving the body that oversees the country’s electronic media entering a pre-election period without an elected leadership.
What happens if no agreement is reached again
The rule for a scenario in which members again fail to agree on a candidate is straightforward: the oldest Council member automatically becomes chair. Under that rule, the post would once more go to Valic Nedeljkovic, who is already presiding over sessions as acting chair until permanent leadership is elected.
The question heading into September 1 is whether Garic or Valic Nedeljkovic will finally gather six votes, or whether the automatic rule will end up deciding who runs REM.
