Posted on 10/14/2002 1:52:02 PM PDT by Whitebread
Kostunica Vows to Bring Down Serbia
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
14:15 ET
AP Online
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica vowed Monday to bring down Serbia's pro-Western government, a day after he failed to be elected president of the republic because of a voter boycott.
Kostunica, a moderate nationalist, won 67 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, more than twice as much as Miroljub Labus, a pro-Western deputy prime minister and an ally of Kostunica's main rival, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
But the runoff election failed because turnout was 45.5 percent, falling short of the required 50 percent. Serbs will now have to vote again by Dec. 5, and the new election will be open to all candidates, including ultranationalist allies of former President Slobodan Milosevic, who is now on trial for war crimes.
Kostunica accused Djindjic of leading a "quiet boycott" of the elections "in order to stay in power."
During the elections, Kostunica vowed to topple Djindjic's government by calling new parliamentary elections next year if he becomes the Serbian president.
Constant bickering between Kostunica and Djindjic since they jointly ousted Milosevic in 2000 has slowed the pace of change in Serbia, impoverished by more than a decade of the former autocrat's rule.
"I want to see the end of Djindjic's regime," Kostunica said. "The political crisis has deepened."
Djindjic's Democratic Party responded by saying Kostunica should resign as Yugoslav president because he failed to be elected in the dominant Yugoslav republic.
"Kostunica campaigned by declaring that the elections will represent a popular referendum on the fate of the Serbian government and Djindjic," the party said. "Since the referendum failed, if Kostunica has morals, he would resign."
Djindjic, as prime minister, has more power than Kostunica. But Kostunica is far more popular because of his nationalist views, and his party is likely to get more votes in the eventual Serbian parliamentary elections that are likely to be held early next year. With a majority in the parliament, Kostunica's deputies can vote Djindjic's government out of power.
Zoran Stojiljkovic, a political analyst, said Djindjic stood to lose the current power struggle.
"Djindjic cannot remain in his post under any circumstance," Stojiljkovic said.
A repeat of the presidential election will give another chance at the presidency to Vojislav Seselj, an ultranationalist leader who had Milosevic's backing in the first round of voting on Sept. 29. Seselj finished third in that round and called for a boycott of the second.
On Monday, Seselj declared he felt like "a winner" because the elections failed. He vowed to hold talks with other Milosevic allies on a joint candidate for the next presidential vote.
Kostunica said that before another vote is held, new election laws should be adopted. International observers monitoring Sunday's vote agreed.
The monitors, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, suggested that the 50-percent turnout requirement should be dropped before the next vote.
"This boycott is not understandable," said Hrair Balian, a spokesman for the OSCE monitors. "The boycott was totally self-defeating for Serbia because it produced uncertainty. Serbia does not need uncertainty - it needs reforms."
Elsewhere in Europe, voter turnout in elections this year was greater, including Sweden's 79 percent and Latvia's 73 percent. Bosnia's election had 55-percent turnout.
In the United States, voter turnout in the 2000 presidential election was approximately 51 percent.
The law mandating at least 50-percent voter turnout was imposed by Milosevic in 1997 as a way to manipulate election results and invalidate a possible victory by one of his political opponents who was seeking office at the time. The law was never repealed. Serbs had plenty of reasons to boycott the vote: Many had hoped for a faster improvement in living standards after Milosevic.
Although average salaries have gone up, they have barely kept pace with soaring prices, despite the relative stability of the national currency, the dinar. Unemployment stands at a staggering 40 percent.
The Jews. Under "L" the first surname is Labus. Do you have a problem with Labus being Jewish, or of Jewish background?
General Nedich was indeed an obedient collaborator, and didn't have much choice, given that Serbia was occupied by the Germans. Croatia on the other hand, was independent, and more than willing not only to send its Jewish population to Germany, but to "help" its alliy Adolf Hitler by setting up its own version of conz camps. I think there is a slight difference here.
Got to keep that perspective clear Trop. You can't draw parity between an occupied German-controlled Serbia and an independent, willing Nazi ally Croatia.
hmmmmm..........this has been a DOS stronghold for years........wonder how many of these non-existant voters helped VK in his 10,000 vote margin of victory in Oct 2000 ?
In total, 81.2% of the pre-WWII Jewish population of what used to be Yugoslavia were killed, or 63,300. In Greece 86.6%, in Poland 90%, in Lithuania 85.1%, in Italy 17.3%, in Austria 27% and in Germany 25%, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
By these numbers the Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were much less murderous than the rest of Europe. It is noteworthy to mention that Yugoslavia did not exist during WWII and that sattistics in this instance are misleading, assigning the death toll to the country that was no more, when in fact the Fasict Independent State of Croatia is responsable for the vast majorty of those deaths and deportations of Jews in the area that involved all of the current state of Croatia, all of Bosnia and Herzegovian and as far in Serbia as Zemun, across the river from Belgrade.
My sentiment as well, vooch! Why do you think the first thing the Chachak "reovlutionaries" did was destroy the ballots?
How about that recent election they had in Serbia, huh?
Not so long ago Kostunica also said that it would be healthy for the coalition, formed just after the bombing of Serbia by Nato, to split and form opposition parties. You can't have democracy without a strong opposition was what Kostunica said at the time, and I thought that it was a pity his message couldn't be heard in other countries (such as the UK where the opposition is about as effective as heavy rain at the moment).
How careless the 'free press' seem to be when twisting a story's entire meaning.
The facts were rather arbitrarily narrowed. I doubt he was referring just to Belgrade when he said "in that area."
Anyway, since we are on this subject, I found an interesting perspective on anti-Semitism is Serbia.
two observations on this POV
1) It strikes me as slightly odd that whenever faced with a political situtaion that the "stauch defenders of democracy and freedom" don't like, these defenders of democratic values argue that the Laws of the prior government are invalid and should be blissfully ignored........this attitude contradicts one of the central tenants of rule-of-law and IMHO undermines democracy more than anything...........if one doesn't like the law(s), then they need to be changed following the rules in place, plain and simple, if one doesn't like the rules (ie the constitution), then change the consitution........but simnply stating "oh the bad guys made that Law so we don't need to follow it" is a prescription for chaos......
2) as for the having the Belgrade electoral rolls padded by 120,000 votes, at face value it appears this was done NOT by the SPS, but rather by the Parties who have controled the Belgrade area for many years.....and those Parties would be DOS parties, who have run Belgrade for a long time........... so here we have prima facia evidence of DOS committing massive electoral fraud.............One shouldn't be too surprised about DOS cadre committing massive fraud given their willful disregard for rule-of-law as evidenced by their anti-democratic attitudes as expressed on this thread
Kosta50, Hoplite's been hiding from any and all ICTY threads so he is sure to be more than pleased to discuss other topics............
Why? Maybe he doesn't know either. Look, I didn't make the list. Address this issue with the Stammbaum.
Are you sure you're not on the list as well Kosta?
No, but I did look.
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