Pavel Marčok (Serbian Cyrillic: Павел Марчок; born 14 June 1968) is a politician in Serbia from the country's Slovak community. He was a member of the National Assembly of Serbia from 2007 to 2012 and was the mayor of Bački Petrovac from 2012 to 2016. During his political career, Marčok was a member of the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS).

Early life and career edit

Marčok was born in Bački Petrovac, in what was then the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in the Socialist Republic of Serbia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He was raised in that community and educated in Novi Sad and Zrenjanin. He is a computer programmer and informatics teacher.[1] He is also a chess enthusiast and has organized an annual international chess tournament in Bački Petrovac.[2]

Politician edit

Marčok was elected the Bački Petrovac municipal assembly in the 2000 Serbian local elections and re-elected in 2004. He was the assembly's president (i.e., speaker) from 2005 to 2006.[3][4]

He received the 129th position on the DS's electoral list for the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election and was chosen as part of his party's assembly delegation after the list won sixty-four seats.[5][6] (From 2000 to 2011, parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be distributed out of numerical order. Marčok's list position had no specific bearing on his chances of election.)[7] The DS formed an unstable coalition government with the rival Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska stranka Srbije, DSS) after the election, and Marčok served with its parliamentary majority.

The DS–DSS alliance fell apart in early 2008, and new elections were held in May of that year. Marčok was included on the DS-led For a European Serbia list and was chosen for a second mandate after the list won 102 seats.[8][9] The results of this election were initially inconclusive, but the For a European Serbia alliance eventually formed a new administration with the Socialist Party of Serbia and other parties, and Marčok continued to support the administration in the assembly, as well as serving as deputy chair of the committee for science and technological development and leading Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with the Czech Republic.[10] He was also re-elected to the Bački Petrovac municipal assembly in the 2008 Serbian local elections, after appearing in the lead position on the DS's list.[11][12]

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that parliamentary mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful lists. Marčok was given the ninety-fifth position on the DS's Choice for a Better Life list and was not returned when the list won sixty-seven mandates.[13] He was, however, re-elected to the Bački Petrovac assembly in the concurrent 2012 local elections (once again at the head of the DS list) and became mayor of the municipality when the DS formed a local coalition government after the election.[14][15][16]

Marčok once again led the DS list for Bački Petrovac in the 2016 local elections.[17] On this occasion, the DS won only five seats and the election was won by the Serbian Progressive Party and its allies; Marčok's term as mayor came to an end in June 2016.[18][19] He was also a candidate in the concurrent 2016 Vojvodina provincial election, appearing in the fifty-second position on the DS's list; the list won ten mandates and he was not elected.[20] He remained a member of municipal assembly until the 2020 local elections, which the DS boycotted.

Marčok has also served on Serbia's Slovak National Council and chaired its committee for the official use of language and scripts.[21] He appeared in the fifth position on Katarína Melegová Melichová's Mother of Slovakia in Serbia–For Slovak Identity list in the 2014 national council elections and was elected when the list won six mandates.[22] He was not a candidate for re-election in 2018.

References edit

  1. ^ "Predsednik opštine" Archived 2016-03-19 at the Wayback Machine, Municipality of Bački Petrovac, 19 March 2016, accessed 10 July 2021.
  2. ^ "У недељу у Б. Петровцу Првенство Војводине у убрзаном шаху", Dnevnik, 27 July 2017, accessed 10 July 2021.
  3. ^ PAVEL MARČOK, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 10 July 2021.
  4. ^ Opština Bački PetrovacArchived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine, Municipality of Bački Petrovac, 30 September 2006, accessed 10 July 2021.
  5. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска странка – Борис Тадић), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 11 July 2021.
  6. ^ 14 February 2007 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 10 July 2021.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ He received the 118th position. See Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ЗА ЕВРОПСКУ СРБИЈУ – БОРИС ТАДИЋ), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 10 July 2021.
  9. ^ 11 June 2008 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 10 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Predsednik opštine" Archived 2016-03-19 at the Wayback Machine, Municipality of Bački Petrovac, 19 March 2016, accessed 10 July 2021.
  11. ^ Zbirna izborna lista za izbore odbornika u Skupštinu opštine Bački Petrovac Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine, Municipality of Bački Petrovac, 4 July 2008, accessed 10 July 2021.
  12. ^ The DS won eleven seats in the Bački Petrovac assembly. See Skupština opštine Archived 2008-08-21 at the Wayback Machine, Municipality of Bački Petrovac, 21 August 2008, accessed 10 July 2021.
  13. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ИЗБОР ЗА БОЉИ ЖИВОТ- БОРИС ТАДИЋ), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 10 July 2021.
  14. ^ Službeni List (Bački Petrovac), Volume 48 Number 6 (25 April 2012), p. 3.
  15. ^ The DS won a plurality victory in the election with ten out of thirty-one seats. See Službeni List (Opštine Bački Petrovac), Volume 48 Number 7 (7 May 2012), p. 3.
  16. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bački Petrovac), Volume 48 Number 9 (9 July 2012), p. 7.
  17. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bački Petrovac), Volume 52 Number 6 (13 April 2016), p. 5.
  18. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bački Petrovac), Volume 52 Number 8 (6 May 2016), pp. 2-3.
  19. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Bački Petrovac), Volume 52 Number 11 (14 June 2016), p. 56.
  20. ^ Изборне листе за изборе за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне покрајине Војводине (Изборна листа 2 - ЗА ВОЈВОДИНУ РАДА И ЗНАЊА – ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА, ДСХВ, НОВА, ЗЕП-ЗЕЛЕНИ – ДР БОЈАН ПАЈТИЋ), Избори 2016, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, accessed 6 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Predsednik opštine" Archived 2016-03-19 at the Wayback Machine, Municipality of Bački Petrovac, 19 March 2016, accessed 10 July 2021.
  22. ^ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ ("МАТИЦА СЛОВАЧКА У СРБИЈИ - ЗА СЛОВАЧКИ ИДЕНТИТЕТ" Катарина Мелегова-Мелихова) and РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за чланове Националног савета словачке националне мањине), Избори за чланове националног савета словачке националне мањине, одржани 26. октобра 2014. године (непосредни избори), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 10 July 2021.