Election Law for Federal Parliament and President of FRY

How to Overthrow the Dictatorship by Ballots

AIM Podgorica, July 24, 2000 (By AIM correspondent from Belgrade)

At the future elections for the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic alone could come to the polls, circle his own name and legally remain at the head of the state as the representative of all its people. Hypothetically, the Draft Law on the Election and Recall of the President of FRY which the federal parliament will vote on today (July 24) even such a development is possible. A candidate will become the president if he wins more than half of the votes of the voters who come to the polls, but it is not necessary that half of the voters on the list of the electoral register actually vote. The deputies will also have on the agenda draft law on election of deputies for the Chamber of the Republics, as well as amendments of the law on election of representatives in the Chamber of Citizens and the Law on Electoral Districts.

The drafted document on the election of the president prescribes two rounds if none of the candidates gets majority of votes of the total number citizens who voted in the first round. In the second round the voters will have to choose between two candidates who win the greatest number of votes in the first round, and the winner will be the one wins the biggest number of votes of those who voted. Candidates for president of the Republic may be nominated by political parties, other political organizations and a group of citizens, if they collect at least 25 thousand signatures in favour of their candidate.

The elections for president of FRY are scheduled by chairman of the Chamber of Citizens, and the Federal Election Committee is in charge of the election procedure. This committee will be established pursuant the law on the election of federal deputies into the Chamber of the Republics and the election of federal deputies for the Chamber of Citizens of the Federal Assembly. Members of the election committee will also be up to eight representatives of the party/organization/group that nominated the candidate for president of the Republic who have collected the biggest number of signatures of voters.

According to the drafted election law, the president will lose his post before the expiry of his term in office in case of death, in case he is relieved of duty or if he resigns. The president may be relieved of duty by decision of Yugoslav assembly when the Constitutional Court establishes that he has violated the Constitution, and in order to relieve him it is necessary that two thirds of federal deputies vote in favour. The proposal to relive the president may be submitted by at least half of the total number of deputies in both chambers of the federal assembly. Both chambers shall decide about it by secret ballot at sessions that take place simultaneously, but without a debate.

Pursuant the drafted law on election of representatives in the Chamber of Citizens, the number of electoral districts has been reduced from 29 to 26. Kosovska Mitrovica and Pec have become part of the electoral district of Prokuplje (Serbia), while the electoral district of Pristina has become part of that in Vranje. In electoral district of Prokuplje which includes 16 municipalities of Kosovo, ten deputies will be elected, and in Vranje which represents nine Kosovo municipalities nine deputies will be elected. According to this document, Montenegro is a single electoral district which elects 30 representatives for the Chamber of Citizens. And Serbia will vote for 108 representatives. The draft law on the election of deputies for the Chamber of the Republics prescribes that Serbia and Montenegro are a single electoral district which elect 20 deputies each.

The new election laws are the result of recent hastily passed Constitutional amendments pursuant which the president of the state (FRY) is elected for a term of four years in direct elections, as well as deputies in the Chamber of Republics. The extraordinary sweating of deputies in the middle of the summer leads to the conclusion that the elections will be scheduled before the expiry of the legal deadline in the end of November. In circles of Serbian opposition there are speculations that people will be called to the polling stations in September already and that along with the regular federal and local elections, presidential elections will also take place then. Some even do not eliminate the possibility that parliamentary and presidential elections will also be organized in Serbia, although the amendments of the Constitution of FRY have made the Republican authorities formally even less important than before.

The experts and politicians of the opposition agree that the drafted regulations on the election of federal president deprived boycott of the elections of every sense. Except for the Serb Revival Movement (SPO), almost all opposition parties advocate going to the polls. There are also numerous guesses about possible presidential candidates of the opposition among whom Vojislav Kostunica, leader of Democratic Party of Serbia, seems to be the favourite. United opposition will wait for passing of mentioned elections and as announced give their final stand on participation in the elections on Tuesday. Ognjen Pribicevic, advisor of Vuk Draskovic, president of SPO, repeated that this party would make the decision about participation in the elections only after they were scheduled, but he also assessed that the developments have just confirmed the stands of SPO that under the present conditions it was impossible to talk about fair and democratic elections: "All these laws are intended to preserve power of Slobodan Milosevic, and not work in the interest of the state and the people".

Vojislav Kostunica, president of Democratic Party of Serbia, stresses that “with drafts of these laws Slobodan Milosevic reconfirmed that he is interested only in bare power and that he does not give a straw or the state, the people, the territory and national interests. "It takes unthinkable moral bluntness and political autism to annex three former Kosovo electoral districts to municipalities in the south of Serbia in order to keep the posts and privileges for a few years more", Kostunica declared. He assessed that Milosevic's “self-preservative calculation is as follows: for a short term I win 19 seats in Serbia, and if Montenegro decides not to run in the elections, I will also get 50 Montenegrin seats for myself, and in the long term the state loses a big part of itself".

Boris Tadic, vice president of Democratic Party (DS) said that drafts of elections laws were in fact part of Slobodan Milosevic's strategy to remain in power. According to his opinion, such moves speak of a dramatic situation in which the regime is. Milosevic is making every possible effort to force the opposition to boycott the elections, which according to Tadic's opinion has no sense in a situation when "the president can be elected even if only three persons vote". "By proclaiming Serbia a single electoral district, the regime of Slobodan Milosevic has discriminated Voivodina. By changing the borders of electoral districts, the authorities are making a manoeuvre convenient for theft, because in this way they will claim 250 thousand false votes in favour of Milosevic. The number of deputies from Kosovo has not been changed so that for one seat from Kosovo 100 people will vote, and for a single deputy from Voivodina it is necessary to collect 20 thousand votes", warns Dragan Veselinov, president of Voivodina coalition. He believes that despite new election conditions it is necessary to run in the elections. Other opposition party leaders are also in favour of voting in the elections. The general opinion is that the opposition has no alternative but to enter the election race with Milosevic with a single list of candidates for deputies and a single presidential candidate.

Democratic Alternative, according to the words of Nebojsa Covic, its president, is in favour of elections, but not at all costs: "If we do not run in the elections, every option is dangerous because Milosevic is a master of the procedure and he does not exactly care what the international community will think". "By changing borders of electoral districts and annexation of Kosovar polling stations to the districts of Vranje and Prokuplje, the ruling coalition is giving itself a big advantage in the elections", Zarko Korac, president of Social Democratic Union, explains. He believes that "united opposition must carefully reconsider the new election conditions and make a good decision". "The stand of the people's Otpor (Resistance) movement is to support every candidate for president of FRY who will be backed by Serbian opposition and the ruling parties in Montenegro", declared Branko Ilic, an activist of Otpor.

And while federal prime minister Momir Bulatovic assesses that the passed amendments of FRY Constitution are "the best bulwark against institutional separatism which exists in some Yugoslav environments", the message sent by official Montenegro is that it does not recognize them.

Montenegrins will not vote in the elections organized according to these rules. The main board of Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) charged members of the cabinet from this party and deputies in Montenegrin assembly to immediately prepare, draft and pass all the necessary documents and regulations needed to formally and legally formulate the jurisdiction which Montenegro has already reclaimed and in this way fully protect its interests and those of its citizens. Zoran Zizic, vice president of SDP, responded by saying that elections will take place in both federal units, with or without DPS.

Leaders of seven best developed countries in the world plus Russia also got involved. They warned from the meeting in Okinawa that the international community would not recognize any elections scheduled by president of FRY Slobodan Milosevic pursuant the recently passed Constitutional amendments.

Therefore, along with all the local aggravating circumstances, the opposition of Serbia will have to take into account the significance of the "international factor". From Greece Vuk Draskovic welcomed the decision of Group 8 not to recognize any elections scheduled pursuant Constitutional amendments passed without participation of legitimate representatives of Montenegro. If SPO reaches a definite decision to boycott the elections, the serious question which arises is whether the rest of the opposition has the strength to confront the ruling parties.

Vladimir Goati, one of the leading political analysts in Serbia, estimates that chances of Serbian opposition are reduced because of Montenegro's boycott. In view of election conditions, there is little chance to express the real disposition of voters in the elections, that is, the big advantage of the opposition. He is convinced that the opposition has no possibility to control the course of the elections process.

There is no doubt that the regime in Belgrade has made election laws fit for preservation of power. By boycott the opposition will not stop Slobodan Milosevic, and by running and possibly losing the elections, it will give him legitimacy for another term in office. Remaining of Milosevic in power in one way or another, may result in continuation of general poverty, even new armed conflicts. The opposition in Serbia obviously has a problem, and it has not resolved the essential question: can a dictatorship be overthrown by ballots?

Vesna Jelicic

(AIM)