YUGOSLAVIA: ZAJEDNO OPPOSITION PARTIES BOYCOTT THE SOCIALIST-LED FEDERAL PARLIAMENT BECAUSE OF ELECTION RESULTS

Record ID: 649334

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: ZAJEDNO OPPOSITION PARTIES BOYCOTT THE SOCIALIST-LED FEDERAL PARLIAMENT BECAUSE OF ELECTION RESULTS
  • Date: 10th December 1996
  • Summary: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (DECEMBER 10, 1996) (RTV) GV EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT 0.05 GV HAS DEPUTIES INSIDE PARLIAMENT 0.15 SV SERBIAN PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC'S SPOKESMAN IVICA DACIC SPEAKING (SERBO-CROAT) (5 SHOTS) 1.21 GV STUDENTS MARCHING THROUGH STREETS(6 SHOTS) 2.18 SCU ALEKSANDAR DJUKIC OF ORGANISING COMMITTEE SHOWING FIVE COPIES OF SERBIA'S CONSTITUTION FOR FIVE JUDGES AND SAYING THAT THEY WILL PUT THROUGH DOOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURT (ENGLISH) 2.44 GV STUDENTS AT CONSTITUTIONAL COURT PUTTING DOCUMENTS THROUGH DOOR (4 SHOTS) 3.09 SV STUDENTS (4 SHOTS) 3.25 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 25th December 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7S3QJ6DTAT1EU4IIIBPXRKPZV
  • Story Text: - Serbian opposition parties boycotted the socialist-led Yugoslav federal parliament on Tuesday (December 10).
    Opposition parties in Serbia have vowed to stay away from the Yugoslav Federal Parliament until Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic says he cheated them of election victories last month.
    The parliament session on Tuesday was the first since Milosevic's ruling socialists and their allies came within reach of a two-thirds majority in federal elections on November 3.
    The federal poll was held on the same day as the first round of Serbian municipal elections, in which the opposition Zajedno (Together) coalition claimed it won in Belgrade and 14 other towns.
    The session was chaired by a representative of the ruling Montenegrian Democratic Party of Socialists, Milo Markovic, who is the oldest member of the chamber.
    The federal election results gave the Serbian socialists, their leftist coalition partners and their Montenegrin allies 84 of the 138 seats, just six short of a two thirds majority which would allow Milosevic to change the constitution.
    His term as Serbian president expires next year and there has been speculation he could become federal president after turning it into an executive post modelled on France's powerful presidency.
    The running conflict over the municipal election has upset this scenario, severely denting Milosevic's electoral credibility ahead of Serbian republic elections which must be held next year.
    The legality of the results is currently under examination by the federal supreme court after the Serbian supreme court rejected opposition appeals at the weekend, giving a fresh head of steam to Zajedno street rallies mobilising up to 150,000 people a day.
    The spokesman of Milosevic's ruling Socialist party of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, told reporters that "the absence of the Zajedno deputies in the parliament session shows clearly the gist of the politics they are leading".
    "They have never paid attention to the parliamentarian ways of fighting. The recognizable way of their political struggle is outside the parliament. It very often was violent", Dacic said.
    Tens of thousands of students took to the streets of Belgrade on Tuesday in what has become a daily ritual of mass protests against Milosevic.
    They delivered copies of Serbia's constitution to the constitutional court.
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