Important update:
Video of voters voting without any ID, provided by LDP and GSS activists.
Translation:
“Sorry i havent brought with me my documents, but i was in a hurry to vote. Thanks for letting me to vote without my documents.”
Constitution cheating video
Previous post: Serbian constitution referendum: news and analisys
Next post: 10 years of Students’ protests in Serbia
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Update: constitution is accepted with something more than 51 percent of the voters, the officials say.
As we speak i can hear the fireworks coming from the city center direction – I’m not sure if there’s anything to celebrate though.
Viktor, I came back from Zrenjanin, witnessed the voting and media informations about voting, all I can say unbelievable. But if people in Serbia are happy with the results and new constitution, why shouln’t I be?!? Changed the link. Like the new design very much.
Hello Seesaw, thanks for the link update.
I have no problem if the people are happy. But in a democracy, only the majority of people counts. I now have my doubts that there was a minority (under 50 percent) who decided this time.
Apologies for not contributing recently I have been up to my eyeballs in work.
After much deliberation I decided to vote on Sunday and it wasnt until I reached the ballot box that my mind was made up. The choice was either to spoil my ballot paper or to vote yes because deciding to vote no would have been pointless (not my fault – see below).
I suppose the reasons for my voting are largely pragmatic and in my own mind appear principled. I dont believe its right to sabotage the democratic process because the likely outcome isnt one that you support. In other words those that urged a boycott were playing that game of saying ‘I’m not playing’ when they could not win fairly.
Pragmatic, because I know that serious depression would get hold of me if this country could not even agree on a silly constitution. I mean why not lets just look for more division, more delay and more electoral bickering. I’m sick of it and refuse to be infected. Frankly I’m glad its over and think its time to look at the many more important issues. (In a way I can understand the pragmatic support of Montenegrin independence in this regard – ‘lets get independence over with so we can deal with the real problems’. Now we have robbed politicians of ammunition to confuse and divide us concerning letters on a piece of paper. Lets now deal with real issues. The economy, the Hague, the EU…..
The result was pleasing to me as well. Nobody was paricularly happy with it – it was certainly not a ringing endorsment of Kostunica (which was at least part of the plan). But the other side are unhappy as well screaming ‘fraud’.
The official final result by the Serbian electoral commission is that 53.04 people voted. And now the boycott group are saying that less than 50 percent took part. Frankly, I feel its more like sour grapes than something justified. I dont know how many thousands of voters 3.04 per cent represents but it would probably take many, many instances (a ridiculous amount) of people voting twice or three times in order for the result to fall under 50 percent.
At my polling station a group of French speaking Council of Europe monitors were standing around watching events and as I understand it there were monitors from other European organisations, not to mention monitors from all political parties. So I would expect that these organisations will report on electoral regularities. Sadly I’m more inclined to trust these men than any within Serbia – which is still infected by party politics and vested interests.
My overriding conclusion is that both sides – the pro constitution and boycott group failed miserably to engage and to educate the public.
I was shocked to watch the leader of the boycott group, Cedo Jovanovic appear on B92 and fail to state his case as to why people should boycott the constitution. It seemed to me that Cedo was trying to engage with peoples emotions more than explain what it was he opposed.
I was just as shocked by the lack of detail in the governing parties’ campaign explaining why people should vote. It consisted of a load of supposed ‘personalities’ who lined up to endorse the referendum vote.
Slogans were used of course. One was to vote for the constitution for Kosovo (Radicals) or to vote for the constitution to get rid of Milosevic’s one (Democratic Party).
A load of bunk. Not quite a fiasco but bunk nonetheless. As I say I’m glad its all over.
PS Many participants over at the B92 blog apparantly feel the same way. In the last week or so we have had a handful of boycot advocates lecturing the rest of us on why we should not vote. Even the moderator got sick of the countless posts on the issue – whose private post to all B92 bloggers was roundly criticised by a pro boycot B92 blogger. For those that speak Serbian, visit their blog for a taste. You will feel sick in no time at all.