Nikola Pavković

The Democratic Party joined the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), an ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's administration, in early 2000. DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, a watershed moment in Serbian politics.

Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) actually won a majority victory in the Pećinci municipal assembly in the 2000 Serbian local elections, but the local Socialist board realized the party could not form a viable administration under the changed political circumstances and instead permitted the DOS govern the municipality. Pavković, who had been elected as a DOS candidate, was chosen as president of the assembly, a position that was at the time equivalent to mayor.^[3]

Serbia introduced the direct election of mayors in the 2004 local elections and also separated the offices of mayor and assembly president. Pavković was re-elected as mayor of Pećinci, defeating a candidate of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS) in the second round of voting. In a March 2008 interview, Pavković said that Pećinci had achieved Serbia's largest budget per capita in Serbia due to a strong level of investment.^[4] He also announced in the same period that the municipality had signed a protocol on the construction of a university.^[5]

His term as mayor ended in 2008.

Pavković appeared in the 199th position (out of 250) on the DS's electoral list in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election.^[6] The list won 37 seats, and he was not included in the party's delegation.^[7] (From 2000 to 2011, mandates in Serbian parliamentary elections were awarded to successful parties or coalitions rather than individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order.^[8] Pavković could have been given a mandate despite his low position on the list, but he was not.)

He received the 181st position on the DS's list in the 2007 parliamentary election and again did not receive a mandate.^[9][10]

Pavković was elected for the Pećinci constituency seat in the 2008 Vojvodina provincial election. The DS and its allies won a majority government, and he served in the provincial assembly as a supporter of the administration. He was not a candidate for re-election in 2012.