Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding

While the western mass media is whipping up a tremendous campaign against Yugoslavia's President Milosevic, the same media has absolutely nothing to say about the election results for the upper and lower houses of Yugoslavia's parliament. Yugoslavia has a parliamentary system with two national leaders. First there is a ceremonial President with no real power. Second there is a Prime Minister chosen by Parliament. The real question in the Yugoslav election was always whether the opposition could muster the votes to gain a parliamentary majority. As a result of last week's election there is no chance that they can govern, not even as part of a coalition. For the first time, Milosevic's Socialist Party and its allies have won an absolute majority of seats in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament. The results of the Presidential vote are being subjected to much (ill-informed) debate. But nobody contests the parliamentary results. In Yugoslavia, prior to this latest election, the Government had only 64 seats out of 138 in the lower house. Now they have added eight in the Lower House to gain a three-vote majority: 72 out of 138 seats. Up until now the Government had to forge a coalition with one of the minor parties if it wanted to pass a law. With its new majority in the Lower House, the Government no longer has to rely on a shaky coalition to pass much-needed legislation. The Government scored a bigger victory in the Yugoslav Senate race, the upper house. They won seven out of 20 senate seats in Serbia and 19 of 20 senate seats in Montenegro. The Opposition won just 10 of 40 senate seats. The Government is just short of a 2/3 majority. Milosevic's governing party won by gaining a majority in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament. It is this result that the western powers are out to undo at any cost, even to the point of attempting to spark a civil war or by cooking up a provocation to justify an invasion of Yugoslavia. They are creating an extremely dangerous situation. But first of all, the West must hoodwink the people into believing that Milosevic lost the election and has fraudulently rigged the results. The parliamentary election results explain why the opposition forces are desperately against any run-off for the Presidency and why the West is attempting to railroad their chosen representative into the President's shoes. By Max Sinclair. 2000-10-09