An ultranationalist leader goes into Serbia's closely contested presidential runoff next month with a slight edge after scoring a small lead in the first-round vote, results released yesterday showed.
The state electoral commission said that Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic won 39 percent of Sunday's vote, while pro-Western incumbent Boris Tadic had 35 percent, forcing the two into a Feb. 3 runoff.
Placing third was populist Velimir Ilic with about 7 percent, followed by Socialist Party official Milutin Mrkonjic with about 6 percent. The anti-Western policies of those two candidates are much closer to Nikolic's, and a majority of their votes are likely to go to the hard-liner in the runoff, analysts say.
But, Tadic could count on the votes that went to liberal leader Cedomir Jovanovic, who placed fifth with about 5 percent.
Marko Blagojevic of Belgrade's Center for Free Elections and Democracy, an independent vote monitoring group, said the runoff would go down to the wire.
"One thing is certain: This will be the tightest election ever in Serbia and the winner won't be known until the last second," Blagojevic said.
The vote could determine whether Serbia will move closer to the EU or sink back into isolation similar to that of the 1990s era of autocrat Slobodan Milosevic. The former Yugoslav president died in 2006 before his genocide trial at a UN war crimes tribunal could be completed.
The pro-Russian Nikolic has sought to evoke Serbs' nationalist pride and has played on the growing frustration over US and EU backing for independence for Kosovo. A Milosevic ally, Nikolic ruled alongside the former president in the 1990s. His return to power likely would bury Serbia's EU aspirations and instead lean Serbia more toward Russia.
"Nikolic and Tadic have different policies regarding Europe, therefore the runoff will actually be a popular referendum on whether the country wants to join the European Union or not," said Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who is a member of Tadic's Democratic Party.
Looming over the vote is the expected declaration of independence next month by separatist Kosovo, Serbia's medieval heartland, which is now dominated by pro-independence ethnic Albanians.
Both Tadic and Nikolic reject independence for Kosovo, but Nikolic -- unlike the current president -- has promised tough measures against countries that recognize Kosovo's statehood.
The state electoral commission said that 61 percent of Serbia's 6.7 million eligible voters had cast ballots -- the largest turnout since 2000, when Milosevic lost power, and more than in 2004, when Nikolic edged ahead of Tadic in the first round but lost in a runoff.
The runoff next month will also depend on which of the two front-runners gets the backing of Serbia's conservative prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who had supported the third-place Ilic in the first round, analysts say.
Kostunica's political views are closer to Nikolic's, but his premiership depends on Tadic's Democrats within their coalition government.
"Kostunica will be choosing Serbia's next president," former Serbian foreign minister Goran Svilanovic said. "Whoever he chooses will be the winner in the runoff."
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique