Election Commission confirms second round

BELGRADE, Thursday - The Federal Election Commission has confirmed the final results of elections for the president of Yugoslavia and ruled that a second round of voting will be held. According to the final results from 10,673 polling stations, of a total of 7,249,831 registered voters, 5,053, 428, or 69.7 per cent, cast votes. The Democratic Opposition of Serbia candidate, Vojislav Kostunica, received 2,474,392 votes or 48.96 per cent; Slobodan Milosevic 1,951,761 or 38.62 per cent, Serbian Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolic received 292,759 or 5.79 per cent of votes, the Serbian Renewal Movement's Vojislav Mihailovic 146,585 or 2.90 per cent and the remaining candidate, Miodrag Vidojkovic, 46,421 or 0.92 per cent. The Commission announced that no objections had been lodged with regard to the presidential election and that a second round would be held on October 8.

The meeting of the Commission at which the final results of the presidential elections were announced was held at about midnight last night, Radio B2-92 learnt from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia's representative on the Commission, Sinisa Nikolic. Nikolic told B2-92 that a meeting had originally been scheduled for 8.00 p.m. but Commission members were told that the chairman's wife had been taken ill. The chairman eventually appeared at the meeting at about 11.30 p.m., shortly after the opposition rally on Republic Square ended, carrying a single sheet of A4 paper on which were data from the Federal Bureau of Statistics. The paper did not carry the signature of the Institute's director. The Bureau noted that the final results showed 600,000 less voters than the figure announced by the Commission prior to the elections. Nikolic said that the Bureau also noted that about three hundred local election commissions had not presented documentation and so the number of voters had been reduced accordingly.

Nikolic told Radio B2-92 that the ten permanent representatives of the Federal Election Commission had voted for the second round of elections, as had the Socialist Party of Serbia. The remaining three members had voted against.

Source: B92

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