Ljotić joined the People's Radical Party (, NRS) of Nikola Pašić in 1920, stating that it was "God's will". He ran for public office in the 1927 parliamentary elections, and received 5,614 votes. This accounted for 19.7 percent of votes cast in the Smederevo District and was not enough to see him win the seat in parliament, and it was won by Democratic Party politician Kosta Timotijević. Ljotić left the NRS shortly after these elections. On 20 June 1928, Montenegrin politician Puniša Račić assassinated Croatian Peasant Party (, HSS) representatives Pavle Radić and Đuro Basariček and mortally wounded HSS leader Stjepan Radić in a shooting which took place on the floor of the parliament of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The shooting led to King Alexander suspending the Vidovdan Constitution on 6 January 1929 and proclaiming a royal dictatorship. The country was renamed Yugoslavia and divided into 9 banovinas (or provinces), all of which were named after the country's major rivers. The pre-1912 territory of the former Kingdom of Serbia was divided mostly between the banovinas of Danube and Morava, and to a lesser extent, of the banovinas of Drina and Zeta. In 1929, Ljotić was granted the first of several audiences with Alexander. He became regional deputy for the Smederevo District in 1930. On 16 February 1931, he was appointed to the position of Yugoslav Minister of Justice in King Alexander's royal dictatorship as a result of his unwavering loyalty to the Karađorđević dynasty. In June of that year, Ljotić suggested to Alexander that the Yugoslav political system be structured on the Italian fascist model. He presented him with a draft constitution that proposed "an organic constitutional hereditary monarchy, undemocratic and non-parliamentary, based on the mobilization of popular forces, gathered around economic, professional, cultural and charity organizations, that would be politically accountable to the king." The king rejected Ljotić's constitution as being too authoritarian. On 17 August, Ljotić resigned from his post after the government decided to create a single government-backed political party in Yugoslavia. Zbor In 1934, Alexander was assassinated in Marseille by a Bulgarian mercenary working for the Ustaše. That year, Ljotić made contact with three pro-fascist movements and the publishers of their respective newspapers—Otadžbina (Fatherland), published in Belgrade; the monthly Zbor (Rally), published in Herzegovina; and the weekly Buđenje (Awakening), published in Petrovgrad (modern Zrenjanin). Ljotić contributed to all three publications and became most