No Presidents for Serbia and Montenegro

Yugoslavia does not exist anymore; new countries can not elect their presidents

The repeated presidential election that took place last Sunday in Montenegro, was over with a failure again due to the fact that few electors came to the polls. According to preliminary information, the voter turnout fell short of a minimum requirement – only 46%. This index is even lower than the one that was achieved in December.

Observers believe that the most popular candidacy at the election is Filip Vujanovic from the governmental coalition. However, bad weather, opposition boycott and voters’ disappointment in the country's political life resulted in an irresistible obstacle for Vujanovic. The election will be successful if  50% voters go to the polls.

For the time being, the events in Montenegro may develop as follows: the government of the country might either cancel the law pertaining to the minimum turnout of voters, or conduct another kind of election, when the parliament will elect the president. The BBC reports that the presidential campaign of the ruling party was accompanied with human trafficking against the government. The government was also accused of showing political pressure on the electorate. In addition to that, the official government of Montenegro is accused with showing influence on officials, trying to make them vote for a certain governmental candidacy. The mentioned allegations have already resulted in the requirements to conduct the official investigation of the matter.

It is worth mentioning that the situation in Montenegro is similar to the one in Serbia. Neither Serbia, nor Montenegro can elect their own presidents. The majority of the population of the two countries do not believe pre-election promises. People exercise their political indifference instead. The state institution of Yugoslavia does not exist anymore. The republic was divided into two countries – Serbia and Montenegro. Srpsky Krst wrote: “The process to destroy the state known as Yugoslavia was over on February 4th, 2003. This process was launched in April of the last year. There has been the new state establishment formed on the Balkans, within the framework of the Yugoslav territory. This became possible after the two houses of the Yugoslav parliament approved the Constitution Charter of the new community between Serbia and Montenegro.” Maybe, there is something symbolic about the fact that Serbia and Montenegro enter the new historic era in a beheaded way  - without presidents. The two countries play the new role of independent states, although Serbia and Montenegro have always been together before.

Sergey Stefanov
PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov