| Enis Imamović | |
| Office: | Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia |
| Term Start: | 25 July 2012 |
| Term End: | 6 February 2024 |
| Office1: | Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe |
| Term Start1: | 25 January 2021 |
| Term End1: | 9 October 2022 |
| Birth Place: | Novi Pazar, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Birth Date: | 25 June 1984 |
| Occupation: | Politician |
| Party: | SDA (until 2023) |
| Nationality: | Bosniak |
| Alma Mater: | State University of Novi Pazar |
Enis Imamović (Serbian: Енис Имамовић; born 25 June 1984) is a Serbian politician from the country's Bosniak community. He served in the National Assembly of Serbia from 2012 to 2024. Imamović was a leading member of the Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak (SDA) for many years until leaving the party in late 2023.
Imamović was born in Novi Pazar, in the Sandžak region of what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He has a degree in biochemistry from the State University of Novi Pazar and is a professor of the subject. He was also a professional volleyball player in his youth.[1] [2]
Imamović joined the SDA's youth wing in 2003. In 2008, he was elected as a SDA vice-president and appointed as a party spokesperson.[3]
In January 2009, he charged that a mob encouraged by rival parties sought to assassinate SDA leader Sulejman Ugljanin during a confrontation at the headquarters of the SDA-led Bosniak List for a European Sandžak alliance in Novi Pazar.[4] The Sandžak Democratic Party (SDP), the SDA's principal rival, rejected the claim that anyone sought to harm Ugljanin, let alone assassinate him.[5] In 2015, Imamović accused local authorities of witness intimidation and other abuses of power relating to the incident.[6]
Imamović received the third position on the SDA's electoral list in the 2012 Serbian parliamentary election. The party won two mandates; he was not immediately elected but was awarded a seat on 25 July 2012 as the replacement for Ifeta Radončić, who had resigned on the day the assembly convened.[7] [8] [9] The SDA initially served in a parliamentary group with the People's Party (NP), with Maja Gojković serving as the group's leader and Imamović as its deputy leader.[10] This arrangement did not last, and the SDA deputies afterward served on their own, without affiliation to any assembly group. In this sitting of parliament, Imamović was a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Germany, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.[11] The SDA was part of Serbia's coalition government in this period, and he served as a supporter of the administration.
Imamović was promoted to the second position on the SDA's list for the 2014 parliamentary election and was re-elected when the party won three seats.[12] After the election, the SDA left the government and moved into opposition, forming an assembly group with the Party for Democratic Action (PDD), a party representing Serbia's Albanian community. In his second term, Imamović was a member of the economy committee, a deputy member of the labour committee, a deputy member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, and a member of the friendship groups with Algeria, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[13] In 2014, he proposed a type of autonomy for the Sandžak similar to that of South Tyrol in Italy.[14]
Imamović again received the second position on the SDA's list in the 2016 parliamentary election and was elected for a third term when the party won two seats.[15] The SDA sat in an assembly group with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) after the election, and Imamović served as its deputy leader. In this parliament, he was a member of the labour committee and the committee on human and minority rights and gender equality, a deputy member of the committee for culture and information and the committee on the rights of the child, a member of a working group for the rights of minorities, a member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, and a deputy member of its delegation to the parliamentary dimension of the Central European Initiative.[16] [17]
He was promoted to the lead position on the SDA's list in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election and was elected to a fourth term when the party won three mandates.[18] The SDA afterward formed an assembly group with the Albanian Democratic Alternative (a coalition led by the PDD), and Imamović once again served in the role of deputy leader. He was a member of the committee for European integration, a deputy member of the labour committee, the president of Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with Luxembourg, and a member of the friendship groups with Albania, Algeria, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Montenegro, Norway, Palestine, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[19]
He was also appointed as a member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 25 January 2021. In the PACE, he was a full member of social affairs committee and the migration committee. He did not serve with any assembly grouping.[20]
Imamović again appeared in the lead position on the SDA's list in the 2022 Serbian parliamentary election and was re-elected when the list won two seats.[21] After the election, the SDA became part of an assembly group called European Regions that also included delegates from Vojvodina and from Serbia's Albanian community. Imamović was the group's deputy leader.[22] The group ceased to exist when one of its members, Tomislav Žigmanov, was appointed as a minister in the Serbian government.[23] After this, the SDA delegates did not serve with any assembly group.
In the 2022–23 term, Imamović was a member of the environmental protection committee, a deputy member of the health and family committee, a member of Serbia's delegation to the South-East European Cooperation Process parliamentary assembly, and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Montenegro, Norway, Palestine, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[24] His term in the PACE ended on 9 October 2022.[25]
Excluding the period from 2012 to 2014, Imamović was an opposition member for his entire tenure in the Serbian national assembly.[26]
Imamović received the first position on the SDA's list for the Novi Pazar city assembly in the 2016 Serbian local elections and was elected when the list won eleven mandates.[27] [28] He resigned his seat on 27 June 2016.[29] He appeared in the second position on the party's list for the 2020 local elections and was again elected when the list won nine seats.[30] [31] He again resigned on 6 August 2021.[32]
Imamović resigned from the SDA on 22 October 2023. His decision highlighted ongoing divisions within the party; it was noted in the Serbian media that a pro-Albanian wing of the SDA had recently seen its influence diminish and that Imamović's departure from the party was prompted by a split in the Party of Democratic Action of Bosnia and Herzegovia. Imamović initially said that he would lead an independent list in the 2023 Serbian parliamentary election, and rumours circulated that he would join forces with former Justice and Reconciliation Party member Jahja Fehratović. He later changed his position and said that he would not be a candidate but would create a new political movement after the election. The SDA reported that Imamović resigned his assembly seat when he resigned from the party; if so, this was not recognized by the national assembly, which considers that he remained a member until the new parliament convened in February 2024.[33] [34] [35]