Posted on 10/13/2002 12:12:48 PM PDT by kosta50
Little chance of valid election | 20:52 | Beta
BELGRADE -- Sunday – Slightly less than 42 per cent of Serbia’s registered voters had cast their ballots in today’s second round of presidential elections with an hour to go to the close of polls.
Under Serbia law, if less than fifty per cent of the electorate votes, the election is invalid.
The Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, releasing the unofficial results to 7.00 p.m., said that it was “theoretically possible” that another eight per cent of registered voters would vote between 7.00 and 8.00 p.m.
In the first round, where the total turnout figure reached 55 per cent, 52 per cent had voted by 7.00 p.m.
With only minutes before the polls close, Serbian presidential elections have apparently failed. Yugoslavia's President Voyislav Koshtunitsa will be out of his job by November 1, 2002, when the Yugoslav Parliament is scheduled to vote Yugoslavia out of existance.
Zoran Djindjich, the unelected Prime Minister of Serbia and the holder of all the executive power, wins big time with this failure.
Whatever happens from now is what the Serbian people decided today. The future is is their hands.
Oct 13, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Serbian presidential elections fail because of low turnout, independent observers say.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Sheshel, the Socialists, Djindjich's supporters, etc. have made it very clear they will boycott elections. Labus was destined to lose, so his supporters have been encourgaed to stay home and defeat the election. <p. This is something I have been trying to explain to Banat for the longest time -- Koshtunitsa had no powerbase beyond the 32 percet of the 55 percent of those who voted in the first round. That translates into just 17.6% of popular vote.
Right, but in the electoral system he operates in, even being most popular is not enough. Today Serbia could have had a new president, a better president, a deserving president. He received 66% of the vote of those responsable citizens who voted. He was railoroaded by spite, juvenile mentality and an even more immature system.
Two years have passed since DOS came into power. Serbia's communist constitution has not been changed yet. Serbian language grammar has not been written yet. Communist-era election rules have not been changed yet. Nothing has been done that needs to be done -- for Serbia.
What did DOS accomplish? Well apparently not much, but enough to keep its paymasters in the West happy. Serbia is being auctioned of to American companies -- Djindjich and Labus are selling Serbia into a semi-colonial banana republic and the Serb voters are "apatheitc" because they didn't get the reofrms they thought they would get, so they are pouting. I can't believe how immature and stupid they are!
What happens next -- there will be new elections, no one knows when. That has to be agreed upon. In the meantime Multinovich’s term in office expires in December. If no president has been elected by that time, the speaker of the Parliament becomes the acting President. The speaker is Zoran’s ally from the DOS. Contrary to Dr.K, she won’t try to bring down Zoran’s government, so he can now breathe a sigh of relief.
Sheshel boycotted elections simply because that’s what the Socialists have been told to do, and his vote (probably 2/3 of what he received) came from the Socialist camp. He may be hoping that next time around Dr.K will be writing his memoirs instead of running for office, in which case Sheshel may stand a better chance by picking up some nationalist vote that would have normally gone to Koshtunitsa. Given the general state of “apathy” among Serbs, he is hoping that by the next elections the dissatisfaction of the voters will give him the votes he needs. He may also hope that the election laws will be changed by then . This election fiasco may only hasten that process.
The reason they didn't change it is because this was not about changing the regime, just changing who's in power -- better known as the powergrab. Djindjich & Co. were simply interested in being in power. The mentality of the new regime is no different than that of Miloshevich. The Djindijch government controls all the major media, jst like the previous regime, and changes or ignroes the law when it suits Mr. Prime Minister personally.
Serbia needs to be reborn and reeducated. Serbia needs a rennaisance it never had. The most primitive element has become the norm in Serbia, thanks in part to such pioneers as Vuk Stefanovich and other "progressives," especially in the last 50 years of the proletarian rule.
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