Nationalist Tomislav Nikolic won the presidential elections in Serbia, defeating incumbent Boris Tadic of the Democratic Party by a narrow margin in the tightly-contested run-off polls held on Sunday. The first round elections were held on May 6.
Tadic conceded defeat shorty after the electoral commission announced late Sunday after counting 40% of the votes that Nikolic had secured 50.21% of the vote when compared to the 46.77% received by the incumbent.
Tadic, who has been spearheading Serbia's efforts to join the European Union, congratulated Nikolic on his "fair and well-earned victory." Nevertheless, he reminded his successor about the importance of Serbia joining the EU, saying: "It would be a tragic mistake if Serbia changes its orientation. It is a matter of peace and economic development."
Tadic, once a close ally of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic who died of a heart attack in 2006 before his war crimes trial concluded at the International Criminal Court (ICC), has since promised that "Serbia will not stray from its European path" under his leadership.
Nikolic was a Deputy Prime minister in Milosevic's government when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to end a two-year-long counter-insurgency war against ethnic Albanians in breakaway Kosovo province. Although he had once called for aligning Serbia with Russia instead of the European Union, he recently distanced his Progressive Party from radical ideologies and projected himself as a champion for Serbia's EU membership.
Sunday's election results came as a surprise to many as the polls were widely expected to reinstate Tadic as the country's President. Analysts now believe that Serbia's ongoing economic woes, including high unemployment and massive sovereign debt, might have influenced the poll's outcome.
With Nikolic's surprise electoral victory, analysts now expect Serbia to toughen its stand against Kosovo. Serbia, along with Russia, have steadfastly refused to grant recognition to Kosovo since it broke away in 2008. However, the International Court of Justice ruled in Kosovo's favor in July 2010, indicating that the move to unilaterally declare independence "did not violate general international law."
Tadic, who resigned last month to hasten an early election, had based his re-election campaign on Serbia's EU membership. Under his leadership, Serbia had handed over the last remaining Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Gen Ratko Mladic to the ICC for prosecution, which was a key condition for EU integration.
Tadic also agreed to EU-mediated talks with Kosovo to help advance Serbia's EU membership aspirations. Recently, the two former Yugoslavian republics reached agreements on regional representation and cooperation, and concluded a technical protocol on the implementation of a previous border agreement.
A sterner stand against Kosovo could hurt Belgrade's prospects of joining the EU as the European bloc wants Belgrade to resolve its differences with the breakaway province. Serbia had launched the process of joining the EU in December 2009, and was initially hoping to become a membership candidate in the first half of 2012. Although Serbia EU candidacy status in March, it is yet to given a date for opening membership talks.
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