Serbs vote in parliamentary elections

Serbs had the pick today of voting Slobodan Milosevic’s allies into power and returning to international isolation or backing pro-democracy parties that ousted the authoritarian leader but later failed to live up to voters’ expectations.

Around 6.5 million people were eligible to cast ballots in elections for Serbia’s 250-member parliament. The voting was crucial for the stability of the republic and the whole of the Balkans, still recovering from four wars fomented by Milosevic and his loyalists in the 1990s.

Polls opened at 6am Irish time and were to close 13 hours later. Preliminary results were expected before midnight.

In a sign that the nationalism that led to those wars is on the upswing again, a key Milosevic ally, the extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party, was predicted to win most votes among the 19 parties or coalitions and more than 4,000 candidates on the ballot.

Moreover, the list of candidates included Milosevic, Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, and two more war crimes suspects charged by the UN tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which is trying Milosevic and others deemed responsible for the atrocities of the Balkan wars.

The main issue is whether the Radical party – which advocates expanding Serbia’s borders at expense of its neighbours and considered Saddam Hussein its chief international ally – will win a majority of votes, allowing it to form a government.

“We cannot say who will have the majority, this is no black-and-white situation,” said Marko Blagojevic, an independent observer. “This will be a true competition.”

According to pre-election opinion polls, the Radicals were expected to win about one-quarter of the votes cast – the most of any single grouping – while three main pro-democracy parties could garner just over 50%. The rest would go to the minor players, including Milosevic’s Socialists who were expected to win about 8%.

Although the three democratic groups – which all used to belong to the massive anti-Milosevic bloc that toppled the former president in 2000 – could form the government together and sideline the Radicals, their constant bickering likely will stand in the way.

A key party in the bloc is the Democratic Party of Serbia led by Vojislav Kostunica, who succeeded Milosevic as president of Yugoslavia, Serbia-Montenegro’s predecessor. He refuses to form an alliance with the now ruling Democratic Party, accusing it of corruption. The third pro-democracy ally, G 17-Plus, also has major disagreements with the ruling Democrats but is willing to cooperate with Kostunica.

On the other hand, if the Radicals win backing from the Socialists and other minor parties, they could end up gaining the needed majority – a scenario that would likely plunge Serbia deeper into social and economic chaos and destabilise the whole region.

A victory by the Radicals would also dash European and US hopes of fostering a pro-Western democratic leadership in Serbia.

The Radicals openly call for “Greater Serbia” at the expense of its Balkan neighbours and have pledged to cut diplomatic ties with Serbia’s main wartime rival, Croatia. They have also vowed not to extradite to the Hague tribunal the two top UN war crimes fugitives – former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his wartime military commander, General Ratko Mladic.