Las elecciones serbias de diciembre de 2003: nuevas complicaciones en el proceso de consolidación democrática

Abstract

The Serbian parliamentary elections of December 2003 have been the most fair and democratic in the country’s history. Paradoxicalally, this does not imply that the elections are a step forward in the process of democratic consolidation. For different reasons, a very important part of the votes went to to "non acceptable" options, whose leaders have been indicted by The Hague tribunal. A consequence is that a future government will have to be formed by agreement of all the democratic parliamentary parties, something which reduces the value to their different popular support o and greatly reduces the possibility of alternance. In addition, the electoral system has been criticized for not allowing the representation of the national minorities’ parties. That can affect negatively the internal cohesion of the state. Finally, it is worth to emphasize that once again participation has been relatively low. This can be due to the voters’ disillusion with the results of three years of democratic ruling, but also to the the little hope that any future government can significantly improve the situation.