Serbian voters hit coalition at ballot box

SERBIA’S ruling conservative coalition appears to have suffered a severe blow in local elections.

Two opposition groups - pro-Western Democrats and hard-line allies of former President Slobodan Milosevic - won most votes, according to early projections based on partial results from yesterday’s election.

Candidates endorsed by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica lagged behind both the pro-Western Democratic Party and the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party in nearly all of Serbia’s 148 municipalities and four major cities.

The ballot, whose importance has gone beyond municipal issues, could even trigger early general elections.

In the race for the influential post of Belgrade mayor, the leading contender was Nenad Bogdanovic, a Democrat, who garnered 32.9% of the votes, ahead of ultra-nationalist Aleksandar Vucic, a Radical.

The two will face each other in a run-off in two weeks.

Election officials said their projections were based on “representative samples” of polling stations and that there would be no significant changes once complete results are in today.

Mr Kostunica’s ally nominated for the top post in the capital Zoran Drakulic, finished third with only 15.2% of the ballots.

A candidate fielded by the pro-Western Democrats was also in the lead in Serbia’s second-largest city, Nis.

The Democrats had controlled Serbia’s government from late 2000, when Milosevic was ousted in a popular revolt, until this year when Mr Kostunica’s coalition came to power.