Failed election puts Serbia into crisis

Serbia was heading for a major political crisis today after it failed for a second time to elect a president and the top contender, Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica, said he would not recognise the outcome.

Kostunica – who won most votes in yesterday’s election that failed because of low turnout – claimed he was robbed of his victory because of irregular voter lists, announcing legal steps to challenge the ballot.

“We will not recognise the results of this election,” Kostunica said hours after the polls closed. “Crime is the right word for what happened here.”

Yesterday’s vote was invalid because only about 44% of the electorate cast ballots, short of the 50% minimum turnout required by the election law. The inconclusive outcome followed a similar failure in October.

Although he won most votes yesterday, the failure at the polls dealt a serious blow to Kostunica, indicating that the once overwhelming popular support he enjoyed when he toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 has shrunk.

Yesterday’s uncertainty at the polls also set the stage for a showdown between Kostunica and his chief rival, Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, adding to an ongoing power struggle between the two politicians who had teamed up to remove Milosevic, but later split over many issues.

“We are heading for a major political crisis,” said political analyst Milan Milosevic.

Kostunica’s camp talked of “scandalous rigging” of the election results by the state electoral commission and the independent observers and said it would appeal to the Serbian Serbian Supreme Court and international institutions.

A similar attempt by Kostunica to challenge the October election failure was unsuccessful.

The Serbian government and its prime minister “are directly responsible” for the election failure, Kostunica said.

Kostunica, a moderate nationalist with pro-democratic views who advocates cautious reforms, faced two extremists: Vojislav Seselj of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party – an ally of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Borislav Pelevic of the Serbian Unity Party, founded by late Serb warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan.

Exit polls showed that Kostunica won 58% of the votes, Seselj won 36%, while Pelevic had 3.4%, election monitors said.

While existing law bars a runoff after yesterday’s vote, it was not immediately clear whether or when more elections would be held. Dragoljub Micunovic, a top politician, said the matter was not regulated by the constitution.

Kostunica has indicated he would not run again, but would try to bring down Djindjic’s government in the Serbian parliament, provoking a general election. To achieve that, Kostunica would have to forge an alliance with Milosevic’s loyalists in the assembly.