To be valid, the flag needs to be approved by the state council for national minorities.
Members of the Serb minority will display the flag alongside the Croatian national flag on minority holidays. They will also be able to hoist the flag on state and local government institutions.
Pupovac, the only presidential candidate, received the votes of 50 of the coordinating body's 70 deputies. He said the newly formed body would insist on the full implementation of the constitutional law on national minorities' rights, notably the section referring to minorities' right to proportionate representation in representative as well as executive bodies of local government.
Pupovac said the coordinating body would request bodies of state administration after local elections in May to ban the formation of city, municipal or county authorities in which minorities were not represented as guaranteed by the constitutional law.
He underlined, however, that he would strongly object to inconsiderate Serb councillors in areas with a majority Serb population.
Pupovac said he would insist on minority councils in local government units being given adequate working conditions as well as on the proportionate employment of ethnic Serbs in state services.
Commenting on the renaming of streets in Plaski, Pupovac objected to naming streets after persons whose names had never been given to streets in this town.
On the other hand, he advocated that in areas where historical presumptions existed for it, streets should be given back their former names, for example in Knin.
The coordinating body also adopted a statute, under which the newly established body assumed the obligations and sources of financing of the Serb People's Council (SNV), which is expected to adopt a decision on ceasing its existence in the coming days.
Some deputies' request that the coordinating body condemn independent MP Ivo Loncar's statement earlier this week that two Chetniks were sitting in parliament did not elicit a major response.
Under the constitutional law on national minorities' rights, the coordinating body will decide on Croatian Serbs' symbols and hymns. A task force was set up to draw up the symbols and the policy of displaying them over the next six months.
Deputies from Istria, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, and Bjelovar counties were against abolishing the SNV, saying the new body's legal status would be vague.
The SNV is registered as a citizens' association and as such is entitled to money from the national budget. On the other hand, a national minority's coordinating body is founded under the constitutional law mentioned above and more than half the minority's county councils take part in its work.
Some deputies said the vague legal status would open the possibility of abolishing the coordinating body and that some minority councils would soon exit it.
Pupovac said the coordinating body would acquire legal person status because this was guaranteed by the agreement between the Independent Democratic Serb Party and the government. He added that otherwise, the coordinating body would have no money to operate.