17 November 2003 Morning Edition

· Elections failed - only 38.3 percent of voters went to polls (Tanjug)

· Zivkovic says not satisfied, Analysis in order (Beta)

· Radicals satisfied with Results Beta (Beta)

· Kosovo Serb leaders point to importance that elections succeed (Tanjug)

· All polling stations in Kosovo and Metohija are open (Tanjug)

· Election starts in Kosovo with problems (Tanjug)

· Serbia faces instability following third failed election in just (AP)

· Clark to Testify at Milosevic Trial (AP)

SERBIA-ELECTIONS-CESID
Elections failed - only 38.3 percent of voters went to polls

21:27 BELGRADE , Nov 16 (Tanjug) - The required one half of voters did not vote at the Sunday Serbian presidential elections, so that the elections could succeed, since the turnout was 38.3 perecent, the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) said late on Sunday.
CeSID announced the first results according to the data acquired on the sample of 304 polling stations from all parts of Serbia, according to which 46.5 voters voted for Serbian Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolic, 35 percent for Dragoljub Micunovic (DOS), and 9.5 percent for Velimir Ilic (New Serbia).

ZIVKOVIC SAYS NOT SATISFIED, ANALYSIS IN ORDER

BELGRADE, Nov 16 (BETA) - Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic said on Nov. 16 that DOS candidate Dragoljub Micunovic's election camp was not satisfied with the results of elections and that it would analyze them in the next few days.

The analysis will define an approach for upcoming legislative elections in Serbia, Zivkovic said, adding that he was not surprised by the Serbian Radical Party's results.

Zivkovic said that a boycott of the presidential election had not succeeded, even though it had lowered the turnout by five to six percent. "Serbia did not respond to the boycott but to those calling for destruction," he said.

The Serbian premier said that new presidential election would be called after the early legislature elections scheduled for Dec. 28.

RADICALS SATISFIED WITH RESULTS

BELGRADE, Nov 16 (BETA) - Serbian Radical Party secretary general Aleksandar Vucic said on Nov. 16 that the party was very satisfied with how it had fared in the presidential vote and that its candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, had achieved a great victory.

Vucic said that Serbia had received hope that it could begin creating a state of law and find new ways of economic change, predicting that the Radicals would also individually receive the most votes in early elections for the Serbian Legislature scheduled for Dec. 28.

Dragoljub Micunovic election camp member, Zoran Lutovac, said that it was clear that the success of the Radicals would be greater if the voter turnout was low. He said the Radicals' supporters had been motivated to visit the polls.

Political observer Vladimir Goati said that Radicals had achieved an important victory and that it was a clear message of what can be expected at upcoming legislative elections. He said that the Radical party had now become the key former regime party and had received a new and powerful leader.

Zoran Lucic from CeSID said an opposition boycott had contributed to the vote's failure, but that the boycott was also a political defeat for the parties that called for it.

Lucic reiterated that Vojislav Seselj, the Radical party's presidential candidate in last year's failed election had received 1,063,000 votes, less than Tomislav Nikolic in this election.
(end)

KOSOVO-ELECTIONS-STATEMENTS
Kosovo Serb leaders point to importance that elections succeed

20:17 ZVECAN , Nov 16 (Tanjug) - Member of the Kosovo-Metohija parliament Presidency Oliver Ivanovic, who had voted in Kosovska Mitrovica, pointed to the crucial imoportance of the Serbian presidential elections, voicing hope that they would succeed.
A similar statement was given by president of the Northern Kosovo Serb National Council Milan Ivanovic, who had performed his civilian duty in Zvecan.
(end)

PRISTINA-ELECTION
All polling stations in Kosovo and Metohija are open

10:52 PRISTINA , Nov 16 (Tanjug) - All of the 248 polling stations in Kosovo and Metohija are open, regional spokesperson for the Center for free elections and democracy (Cesid) Milena Jaksic told Tanjug.
The only polling station in Pristina, housed in the YU program building, was demolished over night but opened on Sunday morning with some delay, and all of the 284 persons from the voting list will be able to vote there during the day, said Jaksic.
(end)

KOSOVO-ELECTION
Election starts in Kosovo with problems

09:47 ZVECAN , Nov 16 (Tanjug) - More than 80 per cent of the polling stations in Kosovo and Metohija were opened on Sunday morning at 7 a.m., but in some places there were problems even before the official opening.
Observers from the Center for free elections and democracy (Cesid) told Tanjug that owing to the communications problems they still do not know whether other polling stations in the Province were opened on time.
(end)

Serbia faces instability following third failed election in just

AP Photos PRI102, BEL112, 113
By JOVANA GEC=
Associated Press Writer=
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ The collapse of Serbia's presidential election because of low turnout and a strong showing by an ultranationalist ally of Slobodan Milosevic are raising fears of major instability in the volatile Balkan republic.
With its parliament dissolved and the reformist government practically ousted, Serbia plunged into a power vacuum Sunday as its third attempt to elect the president in just over a year failed because the turnout fell below the 50 percent minimum required by the law.
In another worrisome sign, the 39 percent of the electorate who did cast ballots voted overwhelmingly for the extreme nationalist candidate Tomislav Nikolic, who won 46 percent, compared to 35 percent in favor of Dragoljub Micunovic _ the candidate of the ruling coalition, preliminary official results showed.
The election results were a major blow for the pro-Western authorities and a sign that Serbia might be sliding back toward the nationalism that led to a series of Balkan wars in the 1990s.
``This is a defeat for Serbia,'' said Micunovic, a 73-year-old veteran politician with strong democratic credentials who had been ahead in pre-election polls.
Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac said the results amounted to a ``tragedy.''
``We are entering a dangerous, dramatic, phase,'' Korac warned. ``This is an important message about whether our citizens still want integration into Europe and reforms.''
Sunday's vote was considered a major test ahead of the Dec. 28 parliamentary election, which was scheduled last week after the government lost parliamentary support.
Serbia's reformist authorities, who ousted Milosevic in 2000 and later sent him to the U.N. war crimes trinunal in The Hague, Netherlands, have become a key U.S. ally in efforts to stabilize the Balkans. Any comeback of the pro-Milosevic forces would present a major setback for Washington.
The popularity of the pro-Western bloc has plummeted because of constant bickering among its leaders and poor living standards. Labor protests are on the rise, and people are generally dissatisfied.
The Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic sought to disperse fears of instability. He conceded that the apparent defeat of the reformist bloc was the result of its disunity.
``We must not despair or allow for the reforms in Serbia to stop,'' Zivkovic told The Associated Press.
Nikolic, 51, deputy leader of the extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party, had been banking that disillusionment with the democracy and the West would help his cause.
He played the card of national pride, pledging to have no more extraditions of Serbs to the U.N. tribunal to answer charges of war crimes committed during last decade's Balkan wars.
``I had expected this ... sadly the turnout was low. We are now looking forward,'' Nikolic said, adding that he is dedicating the ``victory'' to the party's leader, Voijislav Seselj, who is being tried at The Hague tribunal.
Serbia and the much smaller republic of Montenegro form Serbia-Montenegro, the country that replaced Yugoslavia.
There are no more armed conflicts in the region, but the threat of instability remains amid the social and political crises.
In March, Serbia's first post-Milosevic prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, the republic's first democratic leader since World War II, was assassinated, allegedly by crime bosses and Milosevic-era paramilitary commanders.

Clark to Testify at Milosevic Trial

By JENNIFER C. KERR Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) Retired Gen. Wesley Clark agreed to take a brief hiatus from his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to go to the Netherlands and testify at the U.N. war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Clark said Sunday that the chief prosecutor in the trial at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, has asked him to appear in mid-December to testify against the deposed Serb leader.
``Because of the historic importance of this proceeding the first trial of a head of state before a war crimes tribunal I have agreed to appear,'' Clark said in a statement.
He said the U.S. government has authorized his participation, and lawyers from the State Department and the Pentagon would accompany him.
His appearance at the trial raises the possibility that questions might arise about a 1994 meeting between Clark and a Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect could be resurrected at a sensitive time just weeks before the start of the leadoff presidential contests.
As the former supreme commander of NATO, Clark led a 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 aimed at expelling Yugoslav forces involved in a bloody crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Clark also served as director of strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the mid-1990s when the United States was trying to negotiate an end to the war in Bosnia.
Clark told NBC's ``Meet the Press'' that during his work for the Joint Chiefs and later as NATO commander, he spent dozens and dozens of hours in negotiations with Milosevic.
``These are conversations that the prosecutor says would be significant,'' said Clark. ``This is about what Milosevic knew, when he knew it, what his intent was, how he viewed situations, how he operated.''
Milosevic is facing 66 counts alleging war crimes, including genocide in Bosnia. He contends he had no power to stop Bosnian Serbs from committing massacres in the republic after it seceded from Yugoslavia.
On NBC, Clark defended his 1994 meeting with Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic, which he had over the objections of the State Department. Clark was photographed with Mladic in a picture that showed the two men wearing each other's military caps. He had also accepted gifts from Mladic, which Clark conceded Sunday was a mistake.
At the time, an unidentified U.S. official was quoted as saying, ``It's like cavorting with Hermann Goering,'' a German general convicted after World War II as a Nazi war criminal but saved himself from the hangman's noose by poisoning himself the night before his scheduled execution.
But Clark maintains the meeting itself was not a mistake, and he said he had never been warned not to see Mladic. After the talks, Pentagon officials said there had been a ``breakdown in communication'' between the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
While admitting that Mladic was a ``bad guy,'' Clark pointed out that the Serb general had not yet been indicted when they met. Clark said the talks were appropriate because Washington was trying to get the Serbs to sign a peace treaty.