CNN's Alessio Vinci on the Yugoslavian election controversy

(CNN) – Opposition leaders are calling for massive strikes in an effort to force Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic to accept defeat to Vojislav Kostunica in the elections held September 24. Although the opposition has insisted that Kostunica won more than 50 percent of the vote, the country’s electoral commission stated that the results were inconclusive and voted for a second round of elections. Kostunica has called for a general boycott and peaceful demonstrations.

Alessio Vinci is CNN’s Belgrade bureau chief and has been covering Yugoslavia since 1999.

Chat Moderator: Welcome to CNN.com Newsroom, Alessio Vinci.

Alessio Vinci: Greetings to all the technophiles and Internet folks. I am really pleased to give you my first interactive interview ever.

Chat Moderator: Please bring us up-to-date on the Yugoslavian election situation.

Alessio Vinci: Yes, the elections were held on Sunday. The two main leaders contesting the presidency, incumbent President Milosevic and Vojislav Kostunica, have not reached more than 50 percent of the vote according to official results. Therefore, the electoral commission is calling for a second round of voting.

However, the Democratic opposition of Serbia contests the official results, claiming that Mr. Kostunica won 51 percent of the vote and, therefore, is boycotting the second round of voting.

Chat Moderator: Does Milosevic seem to be prepared to accept defeat, or will it be necessary for him to be forced from office?

Alessio Vinci: Well, all indications are that Mr. Milosevic is not going to accept defeat. However, in this round of voting he has admitted for the first time that he is no longer the most popular politician in the country. Official results show him trailing behind his opponent with 38 percent of the vote, against 48 percent for Kostunica.

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Mr. Milosevic is doing all he can at this point in order to force a second round, in which, however, most analysts believe he will come out defeated.

Chat Moderator: Would the candidates allow an independent observer to come in to monitor a second round?

Alessio Vinci: No. There will be no additional monitors at this point. Government officials here have invited some 250 observers from 50 different countries but have refused to allow monitoring from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which has organized and monitored several elections in recent years in the Balkans. OSCE officials played an active role in the bombing campaign last year and, therefore, could not be involved in monitoring the election.

Question from MountainMonk: Mr. Vinci, if the opposition insists on boycotting this runoff, won't they, in a sense, lose legitimacy?

Alessio Vinci: The opposition knows that they have good chances of winning in a second round but they suspect President Milosevic is preparing a trap. Milosevic may count on the boycott to declare the election null. On the other side, the opposition will work and organize massive street demonstrations in order to prevent that second round from taking place. At this point, the opposition is backed by 2.5 million votes, which, in their view, is the highest degree of legitimacy.

Question from Subliminabubble: Is it true that 500,000 votes have mysteriously disappeared?

Alessio Vinci: There is concern regarding the number of people registered to vote. Prior to the election day, the electoral commission announced that 7.8 million people in Yugoslavia had the right to vote. However, in today's official results, that number is being lowered to 7.2 million. The commission explains the missing 600,000 votes in a very confusing way, claiming not all electoral rolls from Kosovo could be checked or counted.

The opposition claimed that the electoral commission undercounted 400,000 votes that were in favor of Mr. Kostunica and gave Milosevic 200,000 votes. Opposition members in the electoral commission have been prevented by other members of the electoral commission from performing crosschecks.

Question from Subliminabubble: The opposition said they would recount and recalibrate all votes cast. Can and will they do this?

Alessio Vinci: No, they can't. They can only base their count on the results that were forwarded to them by their members of the local branches’ electoral commission, in the polling station. At this point, they do not have access to the original ballots.

Yesterday, the opposition tried to send a delegation of 50 people to the electoral commission to perform the crosscheck you are mentioning, but only one person was allowed in, and for only a short period of time. There is no way that one person could have performed that kind of check.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding the possible violent outcome of these elections. So far, reports of police crackdowns and army intervention were unfounded and all sides are calling for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

Compared to previous crises here, I have a feeling that this time, on the one hand, the demonstrators will not seek confrontation with the authorities by trying to march towards government buildings and the residence of President Milosevic. On the other side, given the fact that Mr. Milosevic is no longer the most popular politician here, it appears that he will not test his influence on the police and armed forces by asking them to intervene on his behalf.

Chat Moderator: Thank you, Alessio Vinci, for joining us today.

Alessio Vinci: See you again next time.

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Yugoslav opposition urges strikes
9/28/00

CNN In-Depth: Yugoslav Elections

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