June 11, 2004
More news from Serbia
Serbia's holds their Presidential election this weekend. As I noted a few weeks back, this is a very interesting race.
Right now the frontrunner is still Tomislav Nikolic of the Radical Party. There's a recent interview with Nikolic in English available on the "B92"site. I don't think either interviewer or subject come off with flying colors, but it's interesting.
(There are some local references that might be confusing. Like, the bit about "rusty spoons"? That's referring to when Radical Party leader Seselj, now on trial for war crimes in the Hague, once said that he would gouge out Croat eyes with a rusty spoon. So what Nikolic is saying here is, ah gee, not that old chestnut again.)
If the polls are correct, Nikolic will win, but won't get 50%. That means he'll go to a runoff in two weeks against the next-highest vote getter -- probably Boris Tadic of the Democratic Party. Nikolic would probably lose a runoff if the other parties united. But will they? It won't be easy, especially if the other candidate is Tadic -- his Democrats were the dominant party in the last government, and a lot of people are still carrying grudges.
Meanwhile, gang boss, paramilitary leader, secret police chief and accused Presidential assassin Milorad "Legija" Ulemek appeared in court in Belgrade yesterday.
Legija refused to make any statement. Interestingly, he said that he was keeping quiet because of the election. He refused to go into detail, saying only that he didn't want to have an influence on the outcome. "Elections are more important, the country has been without a president for four years," said Legija. "I don’t want to help anyone."
He also said he did not want to be "anyone’s political prostitute".
This has, of course, only fueled the already red-hot speculation that Legija might implicate senior politicians in the assassination.
On a more cheerful note, there's this. I think this is a great idea, and I hope it gets picked up by other countries. "Hi, I'm Vice-President Richard Cheney. Can I get your bag?"
Posted by douglas at June 11, 2004 02:18 PM