The Serb Democratic Party (Serbian: Српска демократска странка, romanized: Srpska demokratska stranka, abbr.

A sister party was founded in the neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina which took over the same lead, while the minor sister-parties in Serbia and Montenegro, where socialism was still strong, never became prominent.

SDS participated in the first democratic elections in Croatia in April and May 1990,[3] winning 1.55% of the vote in the first, and 2% in the second round, giving them several seats in the Croatian Parliament where they were in the opposition.

[5] In April 1991, the party decided to secede their territory from the Republic of Croatia, and convinced the Serb minority to boycott the 1991 Croatian independence referendum of May 19, 1991, considering it illegal.

[9][10][11][12][13] The political party had to deal with increasing troubles, including economic bankruptcy, high unemployment rates and numerous refugees from the rest of Croatia.

The arrival of international peacekeeping forces such as UNPROFOR and the subsequent United Nations protectorate greatly helped the situation, but occasional hit-and-run attacks by Croatian forces (Miljevci, Dubrovnik hinterland, Peruča, Maslenica, Medak, Dinara) greatly exhausted the entity.

A number of its leadership was and is charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes committed against Croats in the war, most notably its leader Milan Babić who pleaded guilty in 2004.

In 2005, rump remains of party members founded a self-styled Republic of Serbian Krajina Government in Exile in Belgrade, Serbia.