Serbia
parliamentary elections
21/01/2007
Sources: Government of Serbia website, Centre for Free Election and Democracy, Southeast European Times
Election Summary
Serbia held early parliamentary elections on January 21st, 2007, after the minority coalition headed by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica collapsed the previous autumn. The parliamentary vote was the third to be held since the former regime of Slobodan Milosevic was ousted in October 2000. It resulted in four-year mandates for 250 lawmakers.
The ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, led by UN war crimes indictee Vojislav Seselj, won the most seats of any single party, with 81 in all. In second place came the reform-oriented Democratic Party, with 65 seats, followed by the Democratic Party of Serbia-New Serbia coalition, with 47 seats.
The G17 Plus and Socialist Party of Serbia received 19 and 16 seats respectively, while a coalition consisting of the Liberal Democratic Party, Civic Alliance of Serbia, Socialist Democratic Union and League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina received 15 seats.
International observers from the OSCE, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly monitored the vote, as did a monitoring mission established by the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, a Belgrade-based NGO. Western officials largely welcomed the results, noting that parties forming the democratic bloc had won the most votes. "A majority of Serbs have voted for reform-oriented parties, and NATO looks forward to the formation of a government committed to ever-deeper Euro-Atlantic integration," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.
Kosovo Albanians, most of whom were not registered to vote, continued their ongoing boycott of Serbian political institutions and did not participate in the election. However, Albanian parties in Southern Serbia did participate, marking the first time in a decade they have done so.
Total voter turnout was 60.4%