Serbian parliament celebrates 20 years of multi-party system

Belgrade, Jan 12 (Tanjug) The Serbian Parliament hascompleted 20 years of the constitution of its firstmulti-party assembly, by which the country officiallyestablished a multi-party system.

From December 9, 1990 to May 11, 2008 when the lastparliamentary elections were held, the citizens voted for therepresentatives in Serbia''s highest legislative body severaltimes.

The parliament was constituted on January 11, 1991,only a month after the first multi-party elections. Of thetotal of 250 MPs stipulated by Serbia''s Constitution of 1990,the Socialist Party of Serbia held the majority with its 194seats.

Among the parties that also passed the electionthreshold were the Serbian Renewal Movement which won 19seats, the Democratic Party 7, the Democratic Community ofHungarians in Vojvodina 8 and others.

At the time, the speaker of the parliament was SlobodanUnkovic, while Dragutin Zelenovic was prime minister of thenewly elected government.

The Serbian National Assembly has every reason tocelebrate since it has become one of the most effective stateinstitutions- only in 2010 the body passed 262 laws and 49other acts. (Tanjug)