POLITICS-SERBIA: Presidential Elections But No President

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Oct 14 2002 (IPS) - Serbia failed to find a new president Sunday after the turnout fell short of the minimum of 50 per cent. The process will have to be repeated by the end of the year when the five-year term of President Milan Milutinovic ends.

"The elections were fair and free as never before, but we do not have a president," says analyst Srecko Mihajlovic. "Politicians should study why so many people abstained."

The voter turnout was 45.5 per cent of the 6.5 million electorate, according to the final figures from the Serbian Electoral Commission (RIK) and the independent Centre for Free Elections and Democracy.

President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Vojislav Kostunica led the race with 1,995,000 votes. Federal Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus came second with 950,000 votes in the invalid elections.

The presidential runoff in Serbia, bigger sister of tiny Montenegro in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was held two weeks after the first round in which none of the 11 candidates won enough votes. Kostunica and Labus who had the highest number of votes went into the second round. The turnout in the first round on September 29 was 55 per cent.

Under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, both Serbia and Montenegro have their own presidents, governments and parliaments, topped with the federal president, federal prime minister and a federal parliament.

Kostunica and Labus who are both federal officials sought Serbian positions because a European Union sponsored agreement between Serbia and Montenegro in March foresees disintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by 2005.

Serbia’s failure to elect a president meanwhile is blamed on a 12-year-old law that dates back to the rule of former leader Slobodan Milosevic who fell from power two years ago. The complicated law demands a turnout of at least 50 per cent plus one voter for elections to be valid, the winner being the candidate with at least 50 per cent plus one vote in all rounds.

"Serbia needs a new, modern law which will abandon the 50 per cent clause," says analyst Slobodan Samardzic. "Such a law should be in accordance with European standards. These were Milosevic’s standards."

Not everyone blames the law for the failure of the second round. "Politicians who run the game should think twice what it is that makes people abstain," analyst Vladimir Goati told IPS. "It is dissatisfaction, disillusionment and apathy that left people at home. There was no motivation among Serbs to really vote for something."

Serbia has seen four wars, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) bombing and destruction of its economy in the nineties under Milosevic. The new administration is barely able to cope with the shambles.

"Many Serbs believed that once Milosevic was gone things will get better overnight," Mihajlovic told IPS. "Instead, Serbia precipitated reforms that caused enormous loss of jobs, social uncertainty, high prices and the impression that things will never be better again."

Most of the 1.5 billion dollars pumped into the country after Milosevic fell from power went into social, education and health care budgets of the new administration because the state coffers were empty. Unemployment has reached 40 per cent.

This situation gave the far right leader Vojislav Seselj an unexpected third place in the first round. Seselj is pushing for employment through mass public works and not by "kneeling before the West", as he calls the reforms of the new government. Some analysts say that the rerun could improve his chances.

POLITICS-SERBIA: Presidential Elections But No President

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Oct 14 2002 (IPS) - Serbia failed to find a new president Sunday after the turnout fell short of the minimum of 50 per cent. The process will have to be repeated by the end of the year when the five-year term of President Milan Milutinovic ends.
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