Reports from Cities in Serbia

Uzice

The Theft of the Century

The Socialists simply did not allow the electoral committee to verify the victory of the coalition Zajedno, whose candidates won 38 mandates while SPS won 29. After the committee "job" was completed, the score was 29:29. It all began with the big feast on Sunday night, followed by amazement and anger on Monday, ending on Tuesday with the readiness of some opposition members to perish until justice is done, as they have said. This reflects the mood of the supporters of the coalition Zajedno (DS, SPO and GSS) from Uzice, from the moment when the coalition headquarters announced victory on the basis of the received records from the polling stations, up to the moment when the committee annulled the results from 9 polling stations where the candidates of the coalition Zajedno defeated the Socialists, with the average difference of 70 votes. However, they will have to accept the third round due to, as stated at first, "one or two surplus ballots in the box". The reason later turned into "the error" of the coalition candidate who brought a snack to a member of the electoral committee in front of the polling station, which was estimated by the "monitors" of SPS as "illegal presence at the polling station".

"It is sheer insanity to participate in the elections under such conditions, but we still do so because there is nothing to lose that has not already been lost," said Bogoljub Zecevic, the president of SPO's board from Uzice. The vice president of the DS and the MP in the Serbian Parliament Slobodan Gavrilovic kept repeating his comment on the same subject: "It is easier to defeat the Socialist in the elections than to verify the victory."

Nevertheless, the elections were conducted, and the candidates of the coalition Zajedno won four mandates in the first round in the city, while the Socialists won seven mandates in the surrounding villages. In one of those villages, Veluje, the polling station was in the house of a man with whom the supporters of the opposition refuse to communicate, and some of them even said that they would not enter his house, not even for a bag of money. In the second round, 51 SPS candidates competed against 51 candidates of the coalition Zajedno for 56 available seats in the local assembly, and for the remaining 5 seats the competition was between the coalition Zajedno and the Radicals.

"Let us not give ourselves reason to blush in front the citizens of Cacak" said the president of GSS's board of Uzice Miroslav Filipovic three days before the second round, humorously referring to the already certain victory of the coalition Zajedno in Cacak. And the coalition Zajedno won, but the electoral committee annulled the results at 9 polling stations. While this text is being released (Wednesday, 12 a.m.) Uzice is in chaos. The police have completely blocked the city, the large number of citizens is getting ready to express all kinds of civil disobedience at the evening rally to which Vuk Draskovic, Zoran Djindjic and Vesna Pesic are coming, the newly elected representatives of the coalition Zajedno have started a hunger strike protesting against, as they stressed, "the biggest theft in the history of Uzice"; it is said that the members of the electoral committee are driven into a corner, and as we unofficially hear, they had severe disputes among themselves.

 

Kikinda

Termination of Robbery

In the second round of the elections, one of Vojvodina's "red bastions" has fallen - Kikinda. The Socialist Party of Serbia which had enormous majority in the assembly of the biggest municipality of north Banat has encountered true debacle. It could have been perceived on November 14, immediately before the electoral block out, when the top representatives of SPS and JUL Bosko Perosevic (the president of the provincial government), Nikola Sainovic (the vice president of the government of SRY), Nedeljko Sipovac (the vice president of the government of the republic) and several republic ministers held a rally under the slogan "Meeting in Support of the Socialist Party of Serbia" at the Trg srpskih dobrovoljaca (The Square of the Serbian Volunteers). The meeting lasted only some ten minutes or so, because a good number of some two thousand present citizens (although RTS announced in the prime news show that 10 thousand people were present) "awarded" the speakers by whistling and exclaiming "Thieves, thieves!" and "The red gang!". The esteemed gentlemen, who however came to open the new road connecting the villages Idjos and Mokrin an amazing 2.8 km long, "took to their heels". The same evening, the big auditorium of the National Theater was too small to receive all those who wished to be present at the rally of the coalition Vojvodina, so that guests had to move in front of the Town Hall building. The citizens of Kikinda have decided to "put an end to the robbery": the coalition Vojvodina gained most of the mandates - 18 out of the total number of 51 representatives in the municipal assembly.

SPS, which entered the second round with 24 candidates, will have only 9 representatives. The Socialists are defeated at each polling station in the city, and were least helped by the candidates of JUL. The members of JUL had candidates in 50 electoral units, but only five passed to the second round and none gained the confidence of the citizens but only contributed to the dispersion of votes.

Within the coalition Zajedno, five candidates of DS, three candidates of DSS and one candidate of GSS passed to the second round. The achievement of the Serbian Radical Party is somewhat surprising, because only three of their candidates won. The Radicals also won in another electoral unit, where the results of the second round have been annulled due to the surplus of ballots, and in another where the results were annulled in the first round. So far, 49 representatives are known, with two representatives from the Alliance of the Hungarians from Vojvodina and two from the Group of Citizens, but the remaining two will not change the results considerably.

 

Cacak

The End of the Theft

On the eve of the elections, the Socialists from Cacak have opened new buildings, organized celebrations and manifestations, launched news on the happy city and satisfied people that live in it, following the well known scheme; finally, convinced that there is no uncertainty for them, they allowed themselves to quarrel. To be more precise, it was just a culmination of the already existing dispute between the two streams within the ruling party - one led by the president of the municipality Rodoljub Petrovic and the other led by the president of the local party organization Rajko Baralic. Overly occupied with themselves, the Socialists forgot about the existence of the opposition which consolidated its forces within the coalition Zajedno (SPO, DS and DSS), activated the "loudspeaker" and illegal radio Ozon, and gathered at its pre-electoral rally more citizens than ever. For a shrewd observer, this was a sign that people have reacted.

Economically and emotionally exhausted (for example, 20 thousand workers in Cacak do not receive their salaries), fed up by the exaggerated presence of the local officials in the local media and dissatisfied with the way the municipaliaty was led, people were additionally provoked by the pre-electoral quarrels of the Socialists. The citizens of Cacak surprised even themselves in the first round already. The coalition Zajedno gained 26, and the Socialists only 3 mandates. JUL was absolutely defeated, and only one representative of the Radicals passed to the second round. The Socialists are gathering their remaining strength and announcing that the most violent game is played in the second half, and in every eventuality are threatening the citizens that in case the opposition wins, the Republic will isolate Cacak and cut it off from financial aid. The coalition Zajedno promises that there will be no revenge and that it will support freedom of information, and as far as financial aid is concerned, it concludes that Cacak can survive even without the aid from Belgrade. On the eve of the second round, the ruling party had yet another celebration: putting the reconstructed bridge across the Morava into operation. The bridge was opened for traffic after a four month closure and the estranged Socialists Petrovic and Baralic appeared together, accompanied by Nikola Sainovic who invited the citizens to choose the road "which separates them from the right wing and backward forces and links them with the world and the future".

In the second round, however, the coalition Zajedno gained another 29 representatives, and the Socialists another five. The ruling party is defeated in all of the electoral units in the city.

The Socialists forecast that in the forthcoming period the municipality of Cacak will "function with more difficulties than up until now" and announce that there will be fierce opposition. "We shall not participate in this government, but we shall observe the situation with wide open eyes and give our estimations," said the president of the local Socialists Rajko Baralic.

The citizens of Cacak celebrated the results of the elections at the city square, accompanied by a brass orchestra and with no incidents. If the new government fulfills its promises to free the local media, there will be sufficient time and possibilities to express praises or criticism. In case that doesn't happen, the people will have to be silent until the next elections.

 

Zrenjanin

Socialist are Recalculating

On the day of the second voting round for the representatives in the assembly of Zrenjanin, the reporters of the local radio and TV center within the mother-station RTS reported that everything is "in the best possible order", "dignified and civilized", "to the general satisfaction of all citizens who expect a better tomorrow thanks to the continuity of the policy of the Socialist Party and Slobodan Milosevic"...

In spite of the regime's arrogant political optimism supporters from Zrenjanin, a completely different and, to them, in many ways incomprehensible process developed in the ballot boxes. Before midnight of the same day, it was announced to the public of Zrenjanin that the local opposition has defeated the left coalition: the coalition Zajedno won 23 representative seats, the coalition Vojvodina - which also won one federal mandate in the electoral unit of Zrenjanin - 7 seats, the same number as the Party of Vojvodina won which stood alone at the elections, and the Radicals won 2. The coalition "SPS-JUL-ND" won 31 seats. The victory of the opposition was straightforward. The celebration that followed was even greater since victory was achieved in almost deterrent conditions and under the absolute partiality of the local media.

However, things somewhat changed the next day. On Monday news leaked that the Socialists are searching for someone to strike a "bargain" and ensure the necessary number of "hands" in the local government. This was in some way confirmed on Monday afternoon on local television by Dane Marjanac, the SPS high official in Zrenjanin, who announced that the Socialists would nevertheless maintain the continuity of power in the local government.

The doubt of being the ones who have "struck a bargain" with the Socialists fell on the Party of Vojvodina, but this was soon denied by its leader Nikola Tomasev who said "that any trade-off with the Socialists is out of the question, in spite of the fact that the local members of the Party of Vojvodina disagree substantially with the affiliations of the Belgrade opposition in Zrenjanin which absolutely neglects the autonomy of Vojvodina."

And when everybody almost believed that no shadow fell upon the victory of the opposition in Zrenjanin, on Tuesday evening the president of the municipal electoral committee Dragan Skoko announced the "official" results: the elections for the representatives in the assembly of Zrenjanin will be repeated in five electoral units, while in one (oh, how absurd!) the ballots will be recalculated?! That way, in fact, the Socialists from Zrenjanin have embarked upon a panicky pursuit of the lost mandates. Many believe the Socialists will keep repeating the elections in several places until they gain what is already lost by the will of the citizens.

Novi Sad

In the bus from democratic Belgrade which is headed, by way of the Socialist-Radical Srem villages, to the democratic Novi Sad, folk music is blaring along with Radio Novi Sad news on which elections, and especially election results, don't exist. The hard-working employees of this state-owned establishment have what to hide from their enforced wave-length subscribers, since in the capital city of Vojvodina the "left coalition" encountered catastrophic defeat. Taking into account that no free(er) electronic media exists, the only way the citizens of Novi Sad could find out how they voted and who they voted into power was by reading the quickly snatched up copies of Nasa Borba daily and Blic daily. On the streets of the city the usual rhythm, as if though, in keeping with the mentality of the region, a simple routine task has been accomplished and we are now "carrying on". Of course, in the night between Sunday and Monday there were celebrations on the streets of Novi Sad, and things were especially interesting in front of the City Hall building, behind whose windows scared municipal officials and employees were peeping. One of the newly-elected representatives from the coalition Zajedno tells us that the Serbian Renewal Party (SPO), the Democrats and the Coalition Vojvodina were celebrating their election triumph together. Could that be a hint of a large post-election coalition needs yet to be seen...

These combinations and guesswork, of course, can hold only in case the city election committee doesn't start poking it's fingers into opposition achievements: up to the moment when this article is being written, there have been no official election results, even though the dead-line as ascertained by law has been overstepped on Tuesday 8 p.m., while the grapevine kept spreading louder and louder rumors that the election committee of Novi Sad received directions from above to annul the elections in Novi Sad. On Tuesday all seemed normal: party leaders were recuperating from the grand celebrations held on the previous evening which had been organized in the premises of the Serbian Renewal Party city board, during which the first man of the local SPO, Mihajlo Svilar, proved to be an excellent host. As far as this well-known businessman is concerned, rumors have it that he is to be the next mayor, what on account of his personal qualities, what on account of the fact that SPO individually is the strongest party in this city (around 60% of the mandates of the coalition Zajedno). The first man of the Democratic Party board in Novi Sad, Dr. Predrag Filipov, interprets such election results (collapse of the socialists, along with the leading radicals such as Maja Gojkovic or Igor Mirovic) as a decision of the voters to "punish" those who had up until now, unsuccessfully and quite frequently governed the town in an arrogant manner. Filipov notices that even the opposition lost some of the municipalities in which they had previously held power on the basis of the results of the 1992 elections; where there were occurrences of financial and housing affairs and other compromising scandals, even the opposition has lost it's strongholds. "The citizens have" says Dr. Filipov for VREME "protested against bad management. It needs to be understood that local government is not the place where 'large' ideological issues are resolved, but rather particular everyday life problems of the citizens. Which is why they identify their interest in handing over local bodies of authority to those forces which are capable of solving their problems".

In case the election results following the count remain at least closely the same to those following the vote, the coalition Zajedno shall have an absolute majority in the City Hall, and therefore a chance to form local government. Answering a question of whether thoughts have been given towards certain coalitions with other parties or lists, Dr. Filipov says: "It is true that the coalition Zajedno has received over half the seats in the City Hall, but we shall welcome all those forces which intend to work for the citizens interests, of which some have not been present in the City Hall until now. While governing, we shall not be led by revengeful conduct. We shall work for the welfare of the citizens and are prepared for cooperation". As to the question of what shall occur in case the city election committee annuls the elections in Novi Sad, Dr. Filipov says that there are no reasons to annul them, since the elections were legal: "Word is of a peaceful and democratic surrender of power. The electoral body has opted for change. Two thirds of the citizens of Serbia live in the cities and municipalities in which the coalition Zajedno won. I am surprised by SPS's incapability of accepting defeat in a gentleman-like way, even though it is very convincing. The citizens saw that a government can be changed by election ballots, which is of the utmost importance for future elections".

A few Novi Sad citizens which VREME spoke to say that the star of these elections is a young and in the world of politics (even on the local level) completely unknown young man: Vladimir Jovanov, the new coalition Zajedno representative, member of SPO. This young man achieved victory in the first round over the very mayor of Novi Sad, Djura Bajic (as candidate of a group of citizens, since he met with disfavor in his own SPS), only to, in the second round, leave the current president of Novi Sad's Socialists far behind! Otherwise, Jovanov is a bass player of the well known rock band Love Hunters, and also works in a photo shop.

Witnesses recount how Jovanov committed a lucid "incident", in the best rock 'n roll tradition, two days prior to the elections. His band was a guest on TV Pink on account of their Belgrade gig which was to be held on Saturday: at the end of the program, Jovanov called all viewers to come to the gig and to, all together, take part in the elections the next day...

Novi Sad, in keeping with it's own image, in a peaceful and dignified manner, although with a certain dose of (self)irony, greeted the change in local government. The Socialists are left to mull things over and find ways of dealing with such a city, while the new authorities need to give serious thoughts as to how to preserve their victory, firstly from the regime but also from the "rascals from their own ranks". Still, something has moved. In the bus, on our return to Belgrade, instead of listening to tearful folk cries, we watch an American thriller. Symbolic?

Teofil Pancic