POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: Uncertainty Prevails Over Election Results

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Sep 26 2000 (IPS) - An electoral earthquake has rocked the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) at all the three sets of polls that are to decide the future president of the country, its federal parliament and local authorities in 189 municipalities in Serbia.

Statistics of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) claim that its candidate, Vojislav Kostunica, has won the crucial race against current president Slobodan Milosevic.

Kostunica obtained 55,91 percent of votes, while Milosevic won 34,19 percent, DOS said on Monday night. “It’s final and without doubt” said Cedomir Jovanovic, spokesperson for DOS.

According to DOS, the turnout of voters was 73 percent. DOS says it has almost half the MPs of the federal parliament, while in about 90 municipalities it achieved a landslide victory for the umbrella group of 18 parties.

The electoral seat of DOS made the results available through the enormous efforts by its computer experts, who non-stop processed copies of final voting records from more than 10,000 polling stations in the country.

None of the pro-government media carried these results. But, as early as 09:00 AM on Monday morning, the newspapers outside state control were sold out all over Serbia. Serbs also relied on the strong network of the independent radio and TV stations all over the country.

Statistics released by Milosevic’s Socialist Party (SPS), claim that Milosevic is leading with 45 percent of the votes, while Kostunica has 40 percent. SPS electoral seat gave no statistics on the turnout, but admitted to the loss of “many municipalities” at the local level.

The Federal Electoral Commission (SIK), appointed by the Milosevic-controlled government, worked shortly only on Sunday night, when the polls closed. Then, without any explanation, it went into recess around 02:00 AM and has not met since.

To date it has issued no results of the polls, where more than 7,8 million people in FRY, comprising Serbia and tiny Montenegro, were to vote. By law, SIK is due to announce the final official results by Thursday.

“The September 24 elections stand for a political earthquake”, says prominent analyst Vladimir Goati.

“Few are the countries in which an election might all of a sudden alter the entire political setting, the way it can happen here, after 10 years of undisputed rule of Milosevic. Any estimate of what might happen after the elections belongs to the domain of political meteorology,” he added.

As the celebration of the DOS victory in the local elections in Belgrade went on at the central Republic Square on Monday night, many commented on the outcome of the elections.

“We know that DOS won the elections and we won’t let the victory slip from our hands,” says student Srdjan Simonovic. “Kostunica looks like a man who can fulfill what he promised – normal life, hard work for the recovery of this country”.

Many DOS supporters say that Kostunica could re-integrate the country back into the international community.

“We badly need to run back into the world,” says Mirjana Savic, 44, mother of two children. “We still remember how life was good before the past 10 years of Milosevic and we want such life back. My daughters remembers only the deprivation of everything in the past 10 years”.

“This new day is bringing a new, historical and solemn dawn over Serbia, the dawn of freedom,” Kostunica said early on Monday morning when 50 percent of votes were already counted by DOS. “Serbs have defeated their fear in voting”.

“We all have a big task ahead of us, because we have to re- arrange this country through the new constitutional foundations and to return it to the place it once had in the world,” Kostunica added.

In his campaign, Kostunica promised a new constitution and new elections in 12 to 18 months.

The 10 point programme released by DOS calls for crucial reforms in a country that has suffered several rounds of the international sanctions and isolation that ruined its once prosperous economy during the 10 years of Milosevic rule.

The foreign policy includes re-integration into European organisations while other important aspects are an anti-corruption law, an independent judiciary system, a professional army and police and new laws on information and university.

“We have a serious promise of European Union (EU) on 2,3 billion Euros (little more than 2,3 billion US dollars) financial aid in the next three years,” Zoran Djindjic, one of the highest DOS officials told IPS.

“This promise was presented as our promise to voters in the campaign. By voting for us, they voted for that too. The sum would be used for the total re-vitalisation of all segments of this crushed society,” he added.

For the time being, it does not appear that Slobodan Milosevic would acknowledge defeat and leave in peace. Speculation is mounting as to what he might do, as experience in the past shows that the creating of new crisis by the regime presents an ideal smokescreen for not solving actual problems.

“There are several possible scenarios,” Vladimir Goati says. “The first would be that the regime acknowledged Kostunica’s victory in the presidential race, but one can hardly expect that”.

“The second option the regime has is to use SIK to ‘soften’ election results, attempt to buy time, gather a variety of resources and seek another chance to win in the second round (of presidential elections) on October 8,” Goati says.

“The third scenario would be that the regime annulled the elections. To claim all of a sudden that the election procedure was faulty and “evil forces” meddled with them.

“This would be a highly risky scenario since people have mounted up huge energy and something that might be labelled as a “network of victory” has been created. We simply have to wait and see,” Goati added. (END\IPS\vpz\sm\00)