Serbia and the Referendum on the new Constitution - Public opinion polling
The referendum on the adoption of the new Serbian constitution will be held on 28 and 29 October 2006. There are in total 6,639,385 voters who will have the right to vote at the referendum.
The wording of the new constitution which was approved by the Serbian National Assembly on 30 September 2006 differs in many aspects from the Milošević's 1990 constitution which is presently still in force.
The current constitution was adopted in the former Yugoslavia (SFRY) when Serbia was one of its federal units, while the draft new constitution points to the need to define formally and legally the statehood of the Republic of Serbia and to finally deal away with the remnants of Milošević's regime.
For quite some time this was generally understood as the main reason for the political consensus regarding the adoption of the new constitution. However, the referendum campaign is marked by the pre-election race for winning political points in view of the parliamentary and presidential elections which are to follow soon should the new constitution be adopted. For a positive result of the referendum 50% plus one vote of the total voting body is required.
When a few months ago the State Union Serbia and Montenegro was "buried", Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and his DSS (Democratic Party of Serbia) had to find a way out of the crisis into which they fell after they advocated the common state union with Montenegro. Koštunica's government was facing a collapse especially after the G17 plus ministers threatened to leave the government by 1 October unless the talks with the EU continue until 1 October.
Since constitution is Koštunica's "boy's dream" as the boss of the governing coalition he managed quite quickly to achieve a consensus which he wanted to capitalise on and present to the voters as his own political success. The opposition parties were ready to co-operate solely for own party interest in the early parliamentary elections.
However, the marginal, non-parliamentary parties – LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), LSDV (League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina), GSS (Civil Alliance of Serbia) and SDU (Social Democratic Union) – are openly calling for a boycott of the referendum under the slogan "YES to citizen constitution, No to party constitution".
There are some justified reasons for opposing the new constitution, for example the absence of a public debate on the draft constitution which is the usual practice in the west European states, since the aim of the public debate is, among other, to define the problematic issues and find ideas on how to correct or amend them.
The IFIMES International Institute is of the opinion that minor political parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties in Serbia will not be able to influence the results of the referendum since the present Serbian authorities have already prepared the scenario according to which the referendum will be pronounced as successful regardless of what will the citizens are going to express or the opposition of minor political parties.
http://www.balkanpeace.org/index.php?index=article&articleid=14059
October 28, 2006
Serbia and the Referendum on the new Constitution - Public opinion polling
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