YUGOSLAVIA: SERBIA VOTES ON SUNDAY IN FIRST ROUND OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION EXPECTED TO TRIGGER MAJOR UPHEAVAL AMONG POLITICAL FORCES
Record ID:
328713
YUGOSLAVIA: SERBIA VOTES ON SUNDAY IN FIRST ROUND OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION EXPECTED TO TRIGGER MAJOR UPHEAVAL AMONG POLITICAL FORCES
- Title: YUGOSLAVIA: SERBIA VOTES ON SUNDAY IN FIRST ROUND OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION EXPECTED TO TRIGGER MAJOR UPHEAVAL AMONG POLITICAL FORCES
- Date: 29th September 2002
- Summary: (EU) BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) 1. SLV STREET SCENES BEFORE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS (4 SHOTS) 0.21 2. MV ELECTORAL POSTER OF VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA, DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF SERBIA (DSS) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (NOW YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT), READING IN SERBIAN: PRESIDENT 0.27 3. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA, DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF SERBIA (DSS) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (NOW YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT), SAYING "I wouldn't have forwarded my candidacy if I thought I couldn't win. These elections are important to me because of those (elections) which are yet to come and change the picture of Serbia." 0.41 4. MV VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA SHAKING HANDS WITH PEOPLE, WAVING; SLV KOSTUNICAS FINAL PRE-ELECTORAL RALLY; MV PEOPLE HOLDING BANNERS WITH THE SLOGAN OF THE DSS CAMPAIGN READING IN SERBIAN: SERBIA KNOWS (2 SHOTS) 0.56 5. SLV VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA GETTING ON TO THE STAGE, WAVING; SLV PEOPLE CHEERING (2 SHOTS) 1.08 6. SLV KOSTUNICA ON THE STAGE, HUGE ELECTORAL POSTER WITH HIS IMAGE BEHIND HIM; MV YOUNG MEN PUTTING UP ELECTORAL POSTERS; SCU WALL COVERED BY ELECTORAL POSTERS OF MIROLJUB LABUS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SUPPORTED BY DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION OF SERBIA (DOS), (NOW VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT) (3 SHOTS) 1.25 7. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SUPPORTED BY DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION OF SERBIA (DOS), (NOW VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT) MIROLJUB LABUS, SAYING "I am convinced that I am the (next Serbian) President who will bring political peace. You know what I have been doing in the past two years and what I've done. This is the way I will continue in the future, which is a guarantee for political peace and stability." 1.45 (EU) MALA KRSNA, SERBIA, YUGOSLAVIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) 8. MV MIROLJUB LABUS WITH CITIZENS OF MALA KRSNA, HIS HOMETOWN; MV MIROLJUB LABUS LEAVING 2.02 (EU) SMEDEREVO, SRBIJA, YUGOSLAVIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) 9. SLV MIROLJUB LABUS WALKING THROUGH FACTORY; MV MIROLJUB LABUS WITH WORKERS IN THE FACTORY (3 SHOTS) 2.47 (EU) BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) 10. SMV VOJISLAV SESELJ, SERBIAN RADICAL PARTY (SRS) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, WALKING THROUGH THE CROWD, ARRIVING TO HIS FINAL PRE-ELECTORAL RALLY; SLV VOJISLAV SESELJ WAVING FROM THE STAGE; SLV PEOPLE CHEERING (3 SHOTS) 3.14 11. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) SERBIAN RADICAL PARTY (SRS) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, VOJISLAV SESELJ, SAYING "Out of all present Serbian politicians, I am the most respected one by the West, maybe the only one. Even thought they don't like me. The West knows I am not easy to handle." 3.28 12. SCU ELECTORAL POSTER CREATED BY THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT SHOWING PHOTOGRAPH OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, READING: DICTATOR; PHOTOGRAPH OF MILAN MILUTINOVIC, CURRENT SERBIAN PRESIDENT READING: PAWN, AND AN EMPTY SPACE FOR THE PHOTOGRAPH, READING: PRESIDENT 3.37 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 14th October 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BELGRADE, MALA KRSNA, SMEDEREVO, SERBIA, YUGOSLAVIA
- City:
- Country: Yugoslavia
- Reuters ID: LVA984DO8HYNS9NFY8BB3CCKQ4QG
- Story Text: Serbia votes on Sunday (September 29) in the first
round of a presidential election expected to trigger a major
upheaval among the political forces which united to oust
Slobodan Milosevic.
The fate of pro-market economic reforms, started by the
Serbian government and praised by international institutions,
has also been called into question during the campaign for the
top post in the Yugoslav Federations dominant republic.
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, looking for a new
job as the federation is soon to be recast as a looser union,
is the favourite to win and he has criticised the reforms. He
is vowing to remove the cabinet headed by his arch-rival Zoran
Djindjic.
Djindjic backs Kostunica's main opponent, Yugoslav Deputy
Prime Minister Miroljub Labus. He says quick reforms are
needed despite short-term pain to overhaul the economy after
decades of communism followed by international isolation.
The candidates are competing to replace Milan Milutinovic,
whose term expires at the end of the year. He is expected to
join his former patron Milosevic at the the U.N. war crimes
tribunal, which has indicted him for atrocities committed in
Kosovo.
The election is one of many being held around the Balkans
this autumn which the West hopes will help cement the relative
stability of the past couple of years after a decade of
turmoil.
Sunday voting is likely to be the start of a period of
political re-alignment in Serbia. But in contrast to elections
under Milosevic, no one is saying democracy itself is at stake
or warning of violence, if one of the main candidates wins.
Serbia will be faced with a new phase of political
conflicts and a crisis which most probably won't
produce unrest on the streets but will cause conflicts within
political institutions, declared the VIP newsletter on
Yugoslav politics.
Kostunica describes himself as a moderate nationalist
while Labus is regarded as an economic and social liberal. But
the differences between the two camps are more complex than
that.
Kostunica supporters say the government has no respect for
the rule of law and allege corruption and links to organised
crime. His opponents see him as a respectable front-man for
many of the same nationalists who rallied around Milosevic.
The presidential vote marks the start of a battle between
the two factions, uneasy allies in the disparate movement
which brought down Milosevic in 2000, for the key levers of
power.
Polls predict Kostunica, 58, and Labus, 55, will come out
well ahead of nine other candidates on Sunday, with Kostunica
winning a run-off two weeks later.
Many analysts expect that smaller parties keeping Djindjic
in power may switch sides, forcing the prime minister to
accept that early parliamentary elections are inevitable.
The test for this country will be whether Djindjic is able
to withstand all the pressures to call parliamentary
elections, one Western diplomat said.
Among a colourful cast of other presidential candidates
are a former army chief of staff, a veteran film actor and
ultra-nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj, who has received the
backing of Milosevic from his prison cell in The Hague.
Turnout must be more than 50 percent for the election to
be valid. Analysts see little problem with this threshold for
the first round but believe it may be more difficult to reach
in the second, when only two candidates compete.
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