1997 Serbian general election

1997 Serbian general election

Presidential election
← 1992 21 September 1997 (first round)
5 October 1997 (second round)
Dec 1997 →
Turnout48.95% (Decrease 15.20 pp)
 
Candidate Vojislav Šešelj Zoran Lilić
Party SRS SPS
Popular vote 1,733,859 1,691,354
Percentage 50.62% 49.38%

President before election

Dragan Tomić (acting)
SPS

Elected President

Election results annulled
Dragan Tomić (acting)
SPS

Parliamentary election
← 1993 21 September 1997 2000 →
Turnout
57.37% (Decrease 3.93 pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
SPS–JUL–ND Slobodan Milošević 35.70 110 −18
SRS Vojislav Šešelj 29.26 82 +43
SPO Vuk Drašković 19.99 45 +8
KV Sándor Páll 2.83 4 −1
DA Nebojša Čović 1.53 1 New
VMSZ József Kasza 1.28 4 New
LZS Sulejman Ugljanin 1.25 3 New
DKPB Ramadan Ameti 0.36 1 New
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Results of the presidential election by district
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after
Mirko Marjanović
SPS
Mirko Marjanović
SPS

General elections were held in the Yugoslav province of Serbia on 21 September 1997, to elect the president and members of the National Assembly. With no presidential candidate receiving over 50% of the vote in the first round, a second round was held on 5 October.[1] Running on a platform of nationalism and neoliberal economic reforms, Vojislav Šešelj of the Serbian Radical Party received the most votes in the runoff. However, voter turnout was only 49%, below the required 50%.[1][2][3] As a result, the elections were annulled, and fresh elections were scheduled for December.[1][4]

In the National Assembly elections, the Socialist Party of SerbiaYugoslav LeftNew Democracy coalition emerged as the largest in the Assembly, winning 110 of the 250 seats.[5]

The elections were boycotted by several major opposition parties, including the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Serbia and the Civic Alliance of Serbia, which claimed that the elections would not be held under fair conditions.[1][6] Most Kosovo Albanians also boycotted the elections, who made up around 17% of the population, due to increasing ethnic tensions in Kosovo.[7]

  1. ^ a b c d Serbian Presidential Elections Since 1990 Balkan Insight, 1 April 2012
  2. ^ Rosenstone, Steven J. (1983). Forecasting Presidential Elections. Yale University Press. pp. 1–8. ISBN 978-0-300-02691-7.
  3. ^ "CNN.com - World - Election Watch". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  4. ^ "REPUBLIC OF SERBIA: RERUN OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DECEMBER 7 AND DECEMBER 21, 1997" (PDF). osce.org. OSCE. 22 January 1998.
  5. ^ Janusz Bugajski (2002) Political Parties of Eastern Europe: A Guide to Politics in the Post-Communist Era, pp434
  6. ^ "MILOSEVIC'S PARTY CLAIMS VICTORY IN SERBIAN VOTE". Washington Post. 2024-01-08. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  7. ^ "CNN - Many boycott Serbia ballot - Sept. 21, 1997". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2024-03-15.