Ultranationalists win elections in Serbia

Sunday's election in Serbia was a show of nationalist fervor. Seselj's ultranationalist SRS got 28.7% of votes, Kostunica's nationalist DSS got 16.7% of votes, and Slobodan Milosevic's SPS got 5.9 of votes giving the nationalist parties an altogether 51.3% of votes. Clearly, Serbia missed an opportunity to make a break with its nationalist politics of the 1990s. All hope to create a democratic bloc government now lies on Kostunica who fashions himself as a democrat, while at the same time plays the nationalist card. The divided democrats didn't get enough votes to form a government, although the party of the assassinated former Prime Minister Djindjic almost doubled its share of votes to 22.9%. The Liberal Democratic Party of Cedomir Jovanovic also fared impressively gaining 5.3% of votes.

These are the preliminary results according to B92:

Cesid's latest preliminary results translated into the number of seats in the new parliament read as follows:

-Serb Radical Party (SRS) - 81 seats (28.7 percent)

-Democratic Party (DS) - 65 seats (22.9 percent)

-Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS-NS) - 47 seats (16.7)

-G17 - 19 seats (6.8 percent)

-Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) - 16 seats (5.9 percent)

-Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) - 15 seats (5.3 percent)

-Union of Vojvodina Hungarians - 3 seats

-Party of Democratic Action (DSA) - 2 seats

-Serbian Roma Alliance - 1 seat

-Roma Party - Roma 1 seat

Serbia's Radical Party wins 28 percent of vote

Reuters via Yahoo! News - 1 hour, 12 minutes agoThe hardline Radical Party attracted most support in Serbia's general election, dashing Western hopes the nation blamed for a decade of war in the 1990s would finally turn its back on nationalism.

Serbia's ultranationalist Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic smiles during press conference, in Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2007. The Radicals, who ruled Serbia with Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s, gathered about 29 percent of the vote, followed by the pro-Western Democratic Party with 23 percent and the ruling center-right Popular Coalition with 17 percent, said CESID, an independent polling group, citing its own vote count at Serbian polling stations. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

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