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Serbia's pro-European Union president, Boris Tadic, defeated his
main nationalist rival in a parliamentary election but was short of
the number of seats needed to form a governing majority.
The independent monitoring organisation CESID, citing projections
of the outcome, said the very surprising result would give 39% of
the vote to the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic and his
smaller allies.
The election was fought on whether Serbs should swallow their anger
over EU support for the independence of Kosovo, the Serb province
which seceded in February, or turn their backs on the bid for EU
membership, Tadic's top priority.
"Serbs have undoubtedly confirmed a clear European path for
Serbia," Tadic told supporters at his Democratic Party
headquarters.
But he added: "The government we will form will not recognise
Kosovo," countering nationalist warnings that the pro-EU camp would
concede the independence of Kosovo, which broke away with majority
EU backing.
The pro-EU camp picked up votes from supporters of smaller parties
in a January 2007 election, but it did not make great inroads into
overall nationalist support, which remained at close to 50% of the
6.7 million electorate, spread among three parties.
Serbia's biggest party, the hardline nationalist Radicals of
Tomislav Nikolic, campaigned on a No to the EU and were seen taking
29% of the vote.
This was much less than forecast by opinion polls, which before
election day had put them ahead at around 33%.
But the Radicals have potential allies in the Socialist Party of
the late Slobodan Milosevic and the Democratic Party of Serbia led
by outgoing nationalist premier Vojislav Kostunica.
Vital ally
It was not yet clear whether the small Liberal Democratic Party had
managed to cross the five percent threshold needed for seats in the
250-member assembly. If not, Tadic would lose a vital potential
ally.
Kostunica, whose party lost votes, declined to discuss possible
coalitions at a post-election news conference, but spoke of
unbridgeable differences with Tadic.
The Radicals complained of a dirty campaign, without saying whether
they would challenge Tadic's claim to victory.
CESID put turnout in the watershed election at 60.7%.
The European Union welcomed Tadic's projected victory and said it
meant Serbia would move ever faster towards membership.
"The pro-European side in Serbia won, which was what we were aiming
for in the European Union," Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij
Rupel said in a telephone interview.
"It seems that (President Boris) Tadic's Democrats will have a more
important role, which makes me very happy.
"This means that Serbia will move forward ever faster to membership
of the EU," said the minister, whose country holds the rotating EU
presidency.
EU officials have said that if the nationalists come to power,
Serbia's progress to membership will face long delays.
The Radicals say that in the eight years since the fall of
Milosevic, acquiescence to the West and harsh market reforms have
brought Serbs only humiliation and poverty.
They want to put EU membership on ice and push Serbia's claim to
Kosovo.
The Democrats say EU accession is the only way to attract investors
and raise living standards that suffered in the 1990s, when Serbia
was isolated for its role in the Yugoslav wars.
They have tried to combine firm opposition to Kosovo's secession
with offering a hand of friendship to the Western countries that
recognised it.
