Elvira Kovač

Elvira Kovač, alternately spelled in Latin-script characters as Elvira Kovács (Serbian Cyrillic: Елвира Ковач; born July 18, 1982), is a politician in Serbia from the country's Hungarian community. She has served in the National Assembly of Serbia since 2007 as a member of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (Vajdasági Magyar Szövetség, VMSZ).

Early life and career

Kovač was born in Zrenjanin, Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. She studied at the faculty of economics in Subotica, graduating in 2006, and subsequently worked in the provincial secretariat for health and social policy in the executive council of Vojvodina until July 2007.[1]

Political career

Kovač joined the VMSZ in 2000, became a regional trainer for the National Democratic Institute in 2005, and joined the presidency of the VMSZ's youth forum in 2005.[2] She received the 224th position on the VMSZ's electoral list in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election;[3] the list won three seats, and she was not initially included in her party's parliamentary delegation. She was, however, able to take a seat in the assembly on July 18, 2007, as a replacement for Andrea Galgo-Ferenci, who had resigned.[4] (From 2000 to 2011, Serbian parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for mandates to be awarded out of numerical order.)[5] Kovač served as an opposition member during this time.

For the 2008 parliamentary election, Kovač received the fourth position on the electoral list of the Hungarian Coalition, a multi-party alliance led by the VMSZ.[6] The coalition won four seats, and she was chosen as part of its delegation. For a European Serbia formed a coalition government after the election, and the VMSZ provided parliamentary support to the administration.

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that parliamentary mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful lists. Kovač was given the third position on the VMSZ's list for the 2012 election and was re-elected when the list won five mandates.[7] She again received the third position in 2014 and was promoted to second in 2016; the party won six and four seats on these occasions, respectively, and Kovač was returned both times.[8] Although the VMSZ was in opposition from 2012 to 2014, it has provided support to Serbia's coalition government led by the Serbian Progressive Party since 2014, and Kovač has once again served with the government's parliamentary majority during this time.

Kovač was a deputy member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from October 2007 to October 2012 and again from January 2013 to May 2014, since which time she has been a full member. She sits with the European People's Party parliamentary group. Kovač is a member of the PACE committee on equality and non-discrimination; a member of the committee on social affairs, health, and sustainable development; the vice-chair of the sub-committee on the rights of minorities; and a member of three other sub-committees.[9] In May 2017, she affirmed that Serbia's strategic goal was membership in the European Union.[10]

She is also the deputy chair of the Serbian parliament's European integration committee; a member of the committee on human and minority rights and gender equality; a member of the committee on the rights of the child; a deputy member of the committee on constitutional and legislative issues; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Germany and Slovakia.[11]

Personal life

She is married and has a son.[12]

References
  1. ELVIRA KOVAČ – POTPREDSEDNIK SVM, Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, accessed 13 October 2017.
  2. ELVIRA KOVAČ – POTPREDSEDNIK SVM, Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, accessed 13 October 2017.
  3. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Савез војвођанских Мађара - Јожеф Каса) Archived 2018-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 27 April 2017.
  4. Информације о одржаним седницама 2007. године (18. јул 2007. године), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 13 October 2017.
  5. 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.
  6. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (МАЂАРСКА КОАЛИЦИЈА - ИШТВАН ПАСТОР) Archived 2018-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 27 April 2017.
  7. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (VAJDASАGI MAGYAR SZОVETSЕG - PАSZTOR ISTVАN - САВЕЗ ВОЈВОЂАНСКИХ МАЂАРА-ИШТВАН ПАСТОР) Archived 2017-09-11 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 27 April 2017.
  8. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Vajdasagi Magyar Szovetseg - Pasztor Istvan - Савез војвођанских Мађара - Иштван Пастор) Archived 2018-05-06 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 27 April 2017; Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (АЛЕКСАНДАР ВУЧИЋ - СРБИЈА ПОБЕЂУЈЕ) Archived 2018-04-27 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 27 April 2017.
  9. Elvira KOVÁCS, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, accessed 13 October 2017.
  10. "Kovač: Članstvo u EU strateški cilj Srbije", Novosti (Source: Tanjug), 23 May 2017, accessed 13 October 2017.
  11. ELVIRA KOVÁCS, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 13 October 2017.
  12. Biography - Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians
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