Serbians Vote in Presidential Election Marked by Apathy
What if you gave a Presidential election and no one cared? Well, you'd likely be in the US, but in this case it's Serbia, where voter apathy and disillusionment has become well, almost American. Apparently, we export more than fast food and cigarettes.
BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 28 — A campaign marked by bad blood between two faction leaders for the presidential election on Sunday has done little to awaken voters from the disillusionment and apathy that descended after Slobodan Milosevic was toppled two years ago.
In effect, the vote is a referendum on whether to push ahead with free-market reforms to win Western friends and attract badly needed foreign investment, or to favor the go-slow approach advocated by conservatives and nationalists.
But the electorate could be excused for not realizing that. The two front-running candidates, drawn from rival factions of the disparate reformist alliance that united to defeat Mr. Milosevic, have mostly traded insults and accusations as a power struggle that is reshaping Serbian politics heats up.
President Vojislav Kostunica, a conservative favored to win in two rounds of voting, has led Yugoslavia since Mr. Milosevic's ouster. But because the federation comprising Serbia and neighboring Montenegro will be dissolved this year, he is seeking a new job as the Serbian leader.
Miroljub Labus, an economics professor respected in the West, is the underdog, opinion polls indicate. He was pelted with eggs at a rally and snubbed when he challenged Mr. Kostunica to a television debate.
Both are committed to democracy, but they seem to have competing visions of the future and neither has been explicit about what he is proposing. Instead, they appear to have discouraged many voters by offering few specifics about how they will carry out their election promises.
"I'm not going to vote," said Mirjana Kovacevic, a 24-year-old student in Belgrade. "I don't have anyone to vote for. They're all at each other's throats far too much."
Hey, kinda sounds like the Texas Governor's race, eh?? Perhaps the Serbs have learned more from us than we'd realized. It's good to see democracy taking a foothold in Serbia; during my time there democracy was barely an afterthought. Now, though, Serbs get to deal with all of the trappings of democracy- the insults, the innuendo, the mud-slinging, and the studied lack of specifics. Ain't democracy grand??
