Serbia's Presidential Elections Fail

Serbia's first presidential elections since Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power failed Sunday because of low turnout that invalidated the entire process, independent vote monitors said.

Widespread voter apathy — triggered by the slow pace of reforms, quarreling among pro-democracy leaders who ousted Milosevic and low living standards — produced a turnout of 45.5 percent, according to the independent Center for Free Elections and Democracy.

The legal minimum for valid elections was 50 percent.

"Definitely, there is no possibility that these elections succeeded," said Zoran Lucic, a spokesman for the group. "We have not reached our goal at these elections and we did not elect a president."

With Sunday's vote invalid, Serbs will have to relaunch the election process by Jan. 5, 2003.

Lucic said exit polls had shown that Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica won 66.7 percent of the votes, and deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus had 31.3 percent.

Official turnout figures and results were not expected before Monday.

Yugoslavia is made up of two republics — Serbia and Montenegro. Under an EU-supported plan, a new country is to be formed that turns the republics into a loose union. Kostunica will lose his current job when the post of Yugoslav president disappears as part of the plan later this year.

A vote for the Serbian presidency in 1997 also failed because of low turnout. A new round of voting the same year led to the election of Milan Milutinovic, the current Serbian president and a former Milosevic ally. Milutinovic — who kept a low profile after Milosevic's ouster — is also wanted by the U.N. tribunal for alleged war crimes in Kosovo.

Kostunica on Sunday criticized the Milosevic-era election law that requires large turnouts and two rounds of voting, calling it "irrational."

He has repeatedly said that a failure to elect the Serbian president would inflict "instability, tensions and chaos" on the republic and jeopardize unfinished reforms.

Kostunica, a moderate nationalist, finished ahead in the first round of elections on Sept. 29, but failed to win the majority needed for outright victory. Kostunica succeeded Milosevic as Yugoslavia's president, who was ousted in October 2000 and is now on trial before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Turnout was 55 percent in the first round, but Milosevic's allies — including ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj — who failed to make it to the runoff urged their supporters to boycott the vote.

"It's a pity that these elections did not succeed," said Slobodan Samardzic, an adviser to Kostunica, blaming the outcome on the "outdated" election law that requires a high turnout.

Serbs had plenty of reasons to stay home: 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.

Galvanizing voters into action was a challenge for Kostunica, a former law professor and Communist-era dissident, and Labus, a mild-mannered economic expert. Both advocate economic reforms, membership in the European Union and cooperation with the West, but disagree over the best way to achieve those goals.

The most contentious issue centered on a power struggle between Kostunica and Labus' powerful backer, Serbia's Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

Kostunica and Djindjic have argued almost daily over the pace and style of reforms after they jointly led the rebellion against Milosevic. Kostunica has promised to bring down Djindjic's government if he wins the presidency.

Mladjan Dinkic, Labus' adviser and the national bank governor, blamed the low turnout partly on rainy weather that kept voters at home.

"Serbia gave Seselj another chance," Dinkic said, adding that he will advise Labus not to take part in the next election because Kostunica won more votes Sunday.

Just hours before the polls closed, the Serbian Orthodox Church's influential patriarch, Pavle, had issued a dramatic televised appeal for Serbs to vote.

The Patriarch said the church was "seriously worried" that a failure of the vote "could cause a significant deterioration of the political situation and upset the functioning of the state and its international relations."