Travel  |  Business World  |  Women's World  |  Entertainment

Change Your Life!

Democratic movement wins two-thirds majority in Yugoslavia

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

December 25, 2000 

BELGRADE-- (UNB/AP) - President Vojislav Kostunica's followers promised sweeping reforms as first official results showed their pro-democracy forces winning more than a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections in Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic.

The first returns, announced early Sunday, showed Kostunica's camp had secured 177 seats in the 250-member legislature - more than the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution. Milosevic's Socialists came in a distant second place with 38 seats.

The results were based on more than 30 percent of ballots counted, the state election commission said. Two other parties made it into the assembly: the ultranationalist Radical Party, with 22 seats, and the hardline Serbian Unity Party, with 13.

Further results were expected later Sunday, but no major changes were expected.

Milosevic's once-dominant Socialist Party had already conceded defeat.

After polls closed Saturday, Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia said it had enough seats to form the first non-communist government here since World War II.

"The democratic reconstruction of Serbia and Yugoslavia will be completed after these elections," Kostunica said on Serbian state television. "In a few days, we'll have new parliament and government which will be able to tackle corruption and other problems ahead."

Saturday's results in Serbia's elections will enable the democratic movement to complete the revolution set in motion when Kostunica defeated Milosevic for the Yugoslav presidency Sept. 24. Milosevic refused to accept the result and called for a runoff, triggering riots Oct. 5 that forced him to concede defeat.

The pro-democracy forces also indicated they would head for a showdown with leaders of Milosevic's discredited government.

Despite the change in Yugoslav leadership, Milosevic's allies had still controlled key power levers in Serbia, such as the judiciary and the 60,000 strong police force. Serbia accounts for more than 90 percent of Yugoslavia's population of 10 million.

"We won the elections, but a huge job is ahead of us," said prime minister designate Zoran Djindjic. "The government will work 24 hours a day for the people."

Without a strong party to back him in the new parliament, Milosevic is vulnerable to prosecution for running the country during his 13 years in power. Kostunica has refused to extradite Milosevic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, but wants to try him and others in Yugoslavia.

"The elections show that people want a decisive showdown with the former regime," said pro-democracy leader Zarko Korac. "The Democratic Opposition of Serbia needs courage to do it."

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose 350 observers monitored the balloting, gave the vote a thumbs-up.

"Fundamental freedoms were respected and election law was implemented transparently, impartially," said Adrain Severin, head of the OSCE mission.

The Socialists took some comfort in the fact that they will be the largest single party in the new parliament, since the Kostunica coalition includes 18 parties and is expected to breakup next year.

"Those who did everything to make the Socialists disappear from the political scene were not right," said Socialist Party General-Secretary Zoran Andjelkovic. "I'm sure we'll have 20 percent of the votes in the end and we'll be the strongest opposition party in the parliament."

The biggest loser was the neo-communist Yugoslav Left Party of Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic, which won less than 1 percent of the vote, the initial results showed.

Another loser was the Serbian Renewal Movement led by Vuk Draskovic, for years the undisputed leader of the anti-Milosevic movement. First results showed Draskovic's party, which refused to join the Kostunica coalition, won less than 4 percent - too few votes to make it into parliament.

The biggest election surprise were the seats secured by the Serbian Unity Party of indicted war crimes suspect Zeljko Raznatovic, or Arkan, who was assassinated in Belgrade in January.

The party appears to have profited from Serbia's protracted struggle against ethnic Albanian militants over a piece of territory in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo. The Serbs lost control of Kosovo last year after NATO's 78-day bombing campaign to stop Milosevic's crackdown against ethnic Albanians.

"We will do everything to protect Serbia, to free Serbia, to protect our country from further disintegration," the party's leader, Borislav Pelevic, said.

Initial turnout was about 60 percent, some 10 percent less than in September's Yugoslav federal elections, according to the election commission.

Ethnic Albanians in both Kosovo and in areas of southern Serbia bordering the province boycotted the vote. A great majority of them want independence. They consider the elections invalid and hundreds protested the Serb vote Saturday in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

Kosovo was the only region in Serbia where the Socialist Party defeated pro-democrats. According to initial results in Kosovska Mitrovica, where the vast majority of Serbs remaining in Kosovo live, the Socialists won 52 percent of the vote. Kostunica's coalition won 29 percent.

Kosovo Serbs traditionally have been supporters of Milosevic.