By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Oct 30 2006 (IPS)

A referendum over the weekend approved Serbia’s first non-communist constitution in 60 years, but not with the level of enthusiasm the government had campaigned for.

Despite a massive government campaign and calls for national unity, the legal condition of more than 50 percent turnout and more than 50 percent “yes” was barely met.

The Central Electoral Commission (RIK) announced Monday morning that the turnout was just above 53 percent of 6.6 million voters, with 51.46 percent of them voting for the constitution.

Statisticians say the constitution was voted by a margin of only about 100,000 votes.

“It is good that the constitution was adopted after all,” retired Constitutional Court judge Zoran Ivosevic told IPS. “But the near miss of the aim should warn the government on certain things, as so many people stayed at home and obviously did not share its view on the item marked as crucial.”

That is the preamble, which claims that “Kosovo will always remain an integral part of Serbia” – at a time when United Nations (UN) sponsored negotiations on the future status of the ethnic-Albanian province are nearing an end.

The province has been run by the UN since 1999 after the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombed Serbia for 11 weeks to end repression of two million Kosovo Albanians by the Serb regime led by Slobodan Milosevic.

Kosovo, once the cradle of the mediaeval Serbian state, has only a tiny Serb minority now. Ethnic Albanians hope the current UN-sponsored negotiations will bring independence to the province.

The newly approved Serb constitution binds any future Serbian President to the oath that the President “will do all in his/her power to keep Kosovo within Serbia.”

This clause did not seem to convince many. Large numbers of people say they were disgusted by similar voting calls from opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Posters from ultranationalists from the Serbian Radical Party and from the reform-oriented President Boris Tadic from the Democratic Party often appeared at the same spots.

“It is unbelievable that in the name of ‘Serbian unity’ or Kosovo or the constitution one sees the two at the same place,” Ivana Basevic (45), a Belgrade teacher, told IPS. She stayed away from the voting.

“Radicals symbolise what normal people always stood against; together with Milosevic they allowed for bombing to take place. They lost Kosovo in 1999 and now impose patriotism on it again,” she said.

Milosevic fell from power in 2000. The radicals had formed the better part of his government for years.

“People are tired of Kosovo being singled out by this government as well,” analyst Zoran Lucic told IPS. Lucic is head of the leading non-government organisation (NGO) Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID). The group has monitored all elections in Serbia over the past 10 years, and carries out regular opinion polls.

“Our latest surveys show that 30 percent of Serbs believe Kosovo will be independent, the highest percent so far,” Lucic said. “Voters are sending signals that it’s high time other topics become important.”

“The fact that the constitution was adopted in this form will have no influence at all on the talks on the future of Kosovo,” Milica Delevic from the European Movement in Serbia said at a press conference Sunday night. “No U-turn is expected in the negotiations due to the fact that Serbia has adopted a new constitution.”

Her views were shared by top international officials in Kosovo, who sent similar messages to Belgrade in recent days.

On the other hand, the referendum does not seem to have resolved dilemmas in the political life of Serbia. The dissatisfaction has led to some claims even to restore constitutional monarchy.

Heir to the Serbian throne Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic has called for a public debate whether the monarchy would be the best solution for the nation.

The prince, who was allowed to live in Serbia only after Milosevic fell from power, told Serbian media that “constitutional monarchy has many advantages when compared to a republic.”

The Karadjordjevics fled at the outbreak of World War II, and were banned from returning by the communist regime that took over after the war. “The king should be an institution that unites the people”, the prince said. “We are really in the need of such a thing.”

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