BELGRADE, Nov 15 (Hina) - A total of 6,506,505 Serbian voters will have the opportunity to go to the polls on Sunday and elect the new president of the republic.
BELGRADE, Nov 15 (Hina) - A total of 6,506,505 Serbian voters will
have the opportunity to go to the polls on Sunday and elect the new
president of the republic. #L#
A moratorium on electioneering was introduced on Friday and will
last until 8 pm on Sunday, when polling stations will be closed.
This is the third time in slightly more than a year that Serbian
citizens are electing their president. After former Serbian
President Milan Milutinovic, an indictee of the UN war crimes
tribunal, was transferred to The Hague, the presidential post was
taken over by the speaker of the Serbian parliament, Natasa Micic,
who called the first presidential election for September 2002.
That vote, as well as another one in December the same year, failed
because less than 50 percent of the electorate went to the polls,
the legal requirement being more than 50 percent of voters in the
first election round. The law on elections was amended after the
first unsuccessful vote and this requirement was abolished, but
only for the second election round.
Running in this year's presidential elections are the candidate of
the ruling DOS coalition, Dragoljub Micunovic, Serb Radical Party
vice-president Tomislav Nikolic, New Serbia leader Velimir Ilic,
People's Peasant Party president Marijan Risticevic, Serbian
Socialist Party candidate Dragan S. Tomic, and Radoslav Avlijas of
the People's Homeland Party.
According to all estimates, the favourite is Dragoljub Micunovic,
who is followed by Radical Tomislav Nikolic, while the other four
candidates enjoy the support of several percent of voters each.
(hina) rml