SERBIA: Voters react to the Serbian election result, which left uncertainty that the Radicals, who won the largest share of the vote, could form a government.

Voters react to the Serbian election result, which left uncertainty that the Radicals, who won the largest share of the vote, could form a government. One political analyst Zoran Kusovac worried about the country being run by "an unprincipled coalition". On the streets of Belgrade, the Kosovo-Serb town of Mitrovica and Albanian majority Pristina, reaction was very mixed. The hardline Radical Party attracted most support in Serbia's general election, dashing Western hopes the nation blamed for a decade of war in the 1990s would finally turn its back on nationalism. However, there was no certainty the Radicals, who won 28 percent of the vote on Sunday (January 21), could form a government. The result cast a pall over European Union (EU) and United States expectations they would have a progressive Serb government to deal with when the future of breakaway Kosovo is decided and Serbia's EU membership hopes, currently frozen, are re-assessed. One observer worried about the country being ruled by an "unprincipled coalition". "This (election result) is really bad for Serbia because an unprincipled coalition will now run the country for quite a long time, but all parties have good reasons to be content. The Radicals don't really have the votes to form a government but they are the strongest party and that makes them happy. The Democrats are happy because they will remain in power. The little parties, like the G17 coalition, managed to enter parliament, and the Socialists will remain being represented in parliament," said political analyst and journalist Zoran Kusovac. Belgrade residents were also concerned about the result. "I hope the Democrats will stay in power, that they will form a coalition and that that will work," said one. In the Serb city of Mitrovica in Kosovo, Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic hoped the outcome would be a government that would defend the interests of the Serb minority in Kosovo in the upcoming status talks. "The elections went all right, there were few exceptions at some polling stations. But I hope that the results will be that way, that a democratic government will be formed with full democratic and political capacities because this is the only way the government can seriously engage in the future status talks on Kosovo, in other words that it will best defend the interest of Kosovan Serbs." Kosovo's Prime Minister Akim Ceku, said he hoped the completion of the election would enable talks on Kosovo's final status to proceed. "The elections in Serbia were entirely internal Serbian business that have nothing to do with Kosovo, the only thing that has to do with Kosovo is the date of the election. Now, since they happened, we can move quickly to a decision on final status of Kosovo and we hope the international committee will very soon after this election recognise that Kosovo is independent. Serbian people had the chance to vote for the future, but the first signs says that some of them have chosen to vote for the past and this makes the Serbian way towards Europe more slowly and more difficult than it should be," he said. The EU froze talks with Serbia eight months ago because of its failure to capture and deliver former Bosnia Serb Army commander and top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic. Nationalists hope Brussels will back down and talk to Serbia because Europe needs it. Kosovo was taken out of Serbia's hands seven years ago when NATO bombed for 11 weeks to force Milosevic to pull out his troops and end a counter-insurgency war that killed 10,000 Albanian. It has been run by the United Nations since 1999. Kosovo's fate may be decided in days. The Albanians have vowed they will never accept a return to rule from Belgrade and NATO peacekeepers are braced for possible violence. Residents in majority-Albanian Pristina hoped the Serb elections would be the last to affect them politically. "We won't have any problems, we absolutely have nothing to do with them," said one. "They have their own elections, we have ours, and the international community has almost made up their mind about the status of Kosovo," another responded. Back in Belgrade, international observers said the elections had taken place without incident. OSCE parliamentary assembly president and the special co-ordinator for observers said the elections had been impressive. "Elections in Serbia were free and fair. I was personally impressed and proud on behalf of the Serb people for the professional, orderly and well organised way in which they carried out these elections. It bodes well for Serbia's future. The election provided genuine opportunity for the citizens of Serbia to freely choose from a range of political platforms, the election campaign was calm, checks and balances were insured that the election reflects the will of the people and it is in line with the OSCE commitments," he said.

ITN Source | January 22, 2007

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