Boris Tadic concedes defeat in Serbian elections

Former Serbian President Boris Tadic has conceded defeat in the country’s presidential runoff election. Official preliminary results show his nationalist opponent, Tomislav Nikolic, ahead by a little over three per cent.

With 52.5 per cent of the votes counted, Tomislav Nikolic secured 50.21 per cent, while Boris Tadic managed 46.77 per cent, the Republican Electoral Commission reports. The Center for Free Elections and Democracy, an independent polling group, has counted 70 per cent of the ballots and says Nikolic won 49.4 per cent, while Tadic received only 47.4 per cent. 

Boris Tadic admitted his defeat during a news conference. "I wish Nikolic the best of luck" he said.

In the meantime, Tomislav Nikolic, traditionally considered an anti-Western and pro-Russian politician, claimed his victory and said his country would "not stray from its European road".

During the campaign, Nikolic largely focused on the economic woes of ordinary Serbians, chiding Tadic and his government for growing unemployment, plummeting living standards and corruption within the ruling elite.

Nikolic and his Serbian Progressive Party also accused Tadic and his supporters of rigging the ballot in the first round of the presidential poll, in which Tadic came first. The former president’s supporters rejected the claim. 

Tadic resigned in April 2012 to hold early presidential and parliamentary election in hopes of giving a boost to the Democratic Party, which he leads. That poll was topped by Nikolic’s Progressive Party, which managed to garner over 24 per cent of the votes. The Democratic Party came in second with just over 22 per cent.

Tadic ran his campaign on a promise to continue his liberal, pro-EU policies. His presidency, which ran for eight years, was marked by greater ties with Western Europe and a largely conciliatory stance towards Kosovo, though he and his government censured its declaration of independence in 2008. His government also actively cooperated with the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, furnishing The Hague with indicted war criminals, such as Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.

This year the European Council granted Serbia official candidate status for the EU.

Marko Gasic, a political expert on the Balkan region, believes Nikolic decided to embrace a pro-EU stance during the campaign as not doing so would have barred him from getting elected.

“The problem for Serbian voters is that they’re surrounded by NATO countries, their media is owned by NATO countries, whether directly or indirectly, and all the strings have so far been pulled by the pro-NATO lobby,” Gasic told RT. “So any politician that wants to get anywhere in Serbia is certainly not going to be too anti-NATO. I think Nikolic has recognized that reality which has prevailed in Serbia for several years now and has adjusted his colors accordingly.”

The political expert also noted that the population was largely frustrated with the high levels of corruption and a grim economic situation under President Tadic.

“There are many evils in the system,” Gasic said. “Ex-president Tadic has presided over eight years of poverty, in which his oligarchy have drawn all the financial benefits and replaced communism with a kind of corruption-ism, which has been very good for them and very bad for everybody else in the country.”

Gasic also noted that while the population was afraid of change, it was also fed up with poverty.

“Despite Tadic’s promises of an EU rose garden, even the EU garden looks very bare at the moment and Tadic’s offering looks even barer as a result,” he noted.