Washing Hands in Nis

After a 240 kilometre walk from Nis to Belgrade and handing in a letter of protest over the election fraud to Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, a member of the Nis students' delegation said the following to reporters: "We passed our ultimatum to the president, and as you could see he admitted the theft in Nis after 20 kilometres. But that's not enough - he must admit theft everywhere it happened".

What exactly did the Nis court do ? Back in November, the Nis court turned down an appeal by the Zajedno coalition with the explanation that the city election committee had not given its verdict. At the same time, the Belgrade municipal court sustained objections of the ruling Socialist party for the very reason that the election committee had not given a verdict. So we had a situation where two identical courts guided by one law passed two confronted verdicts based on identical circumstances - but both in favour of one party. However, the opposition coalition took full advantage of the fact that the election committee's whereabouts, much less decisions, were unknown for almost two weeks. It appealed to the court once again, and the court for God knows what reason decided to respect the law and sustain the appeal. The court nullified the decision which replaced 26 opposition deputies who won the elections in Nis with 26 SPS deputies in the city council. The court also instructed the election committee to determine the election results on the basis of ballot lists and submit a report within ten days, which the committee refused to do. The law says that all state institutions must act under court orders, but no penalties are envisaged if they refuse to do so. The only penalty is losing the case, which is exactly what happened.

Theoretically, the election committee could still verify the "victory" of 26 socialist candidates which would undoubdetdly end in an another Zajedno appeal. In that case, the court would have no choise but to order the dismissal of the election committee and form a new one. If, however, the 26 mandates are given to Zajedno, the coalition would have a 39 to 31 majority in the Nis municipal cuncil.

Meanwhile, the supreme court of Serbia has reportedly reinstated the coalition as winners in Belgrade's Savski venac municipality. Although there is still no indication that this unprecedented judicial method of putting things straight could happen in the Belgrade city council, the authorities could save face with the help of their lawful state. An appeal by the Zajedno coalition for the violation of ballot rights and equality before the court is still to be considered by the Yugoslav constitutional court, and the deadline for the verdict has not yet expired. The fact that the election committee in Nis has failed to produce even a copy of the election report has brought suspicion that the original has been destroyed. A legal proceeding against those who destroy either the original or the copy is envisaged. The law says that an individual who forges the result of a ballot can be sentenced to a prison term of up to three years.

If there is reasonable suspicion that such a criminal act has been committed the interior ministery and the district attorney ought to take immediate action. If they fail to do so someone else might, because the law says that anyone is entitled to press charges.