SERBIA: Voter apathy scuppered Serbia's latest bid to elect a president yesterday, prolonging a period of uncertainty and power battles among the politicians who ousted Slobodan Milosevic.
Western powers had urged people to cast ballots, saying Serbia needed political stability to push ahead with crucial reform after a decade of wars and international isolation under Mr Milosevic, toppled as Yugoslav president in late 2000.
But turnout was only around 45 per cent, well below the legal minimum of 50 per cent, election monitors said.
"We can definitely say that the electorate did not come out to vote in numbers larger than 45 per cent," said Mr Zoran Lucic, an analyst at the Belgrade-based Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, an independent body which monitored the poll.
Many people abstained in a sign of disapproval of the candidates on offer and disappointment that their living standards have not improved more quickly since Mr Milosevic was ousted by an alliance promising democracy and prosperity.
Current Yugoslav President Mr Vojislav Kostunica, a self-styled moderate nationalist, came out well ahead of two more hardline candidates. One of them, Mr Vojislav Seselj, is being investigated by the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal.
Mr Kostunica won about 58 per cent of the vote, according to a projection by the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy. Radical Party leader Mr Seselj scored around 36 per cent and Mr Borislav Pelevic, a former ally of slain Serb warlord Arkan, garnered around 3 per cent.
Mr Kostunica came first in a September election but did not secure an absolute majority.
In October, he defeated a candidate backed by his arch-rival Serbian Prime Minister Mr Zoran Djindjic in a run-off that also failed due to insufficient turnout.
Mr Kostunica and Mr Djindjic, who cultivates the image of a pro-Western economic reformer, were the two leading figures in the opposition movement that united to topple Mr Milosevic.
They have since been engaged in a bitter power struggle. - (Reuters)