RADIO FREE EUROPE search COMMUNIST AREA YUGOSLAVIA: Government 27 April 1967 SLECTIONS IN YUGOSLAVIA: FINAL RESULTS } elected members of the Federal Chamber, which is polit important chamber of the Yugoslav Federal Assembly in_Belgrade,? 59 « new members while only one was re-elected. Unfortunately information is not yet ava able to indicate results from the Party's declared aim of electing younger, better educated men of the type needed to make the economic reforms a success. It is mown, however, that a number 0: arty favorites defeated in the elections for the republican a: s were beaten by older men who had been par- tisans in World War II. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to note that even at the fede: ere Party control might be expected to be most re— strictive, the elections were generally contested to at least some degree: only in Montenegro and Macedonia were there no more candidates than vacant seats in the Federal Chamber (in Montenegro two; in Macedonia five). 1) See RFE Research report "Yugoslav Elections Analyzed", 25 April 1967 by S. S. The Yugoslav Federal Assembly is divided into five chambers, each consisting of 120 deputies (a total of 600 deputies) plus 70 members of the Council of Nationalities who are delegated by six republican assemblies (ten each) and by two assemblies of the autonomous provinces, the Kosmet and Voivodina (five each). The Council of Nationalities is a component part of the Federal wich thereby has a total of 190 deputies. “The other are: the Economic Chamber, the Educational and Cultural ocial and Health Chamber and the Political-Adminis- Wembers of these four chambers are elected by s from nominees proposed at the meetings of the tories, farm collectives, and various insti- 3) his is Major General of the Army Franjo Knebl, 52, born in Czechoslovakia.In all the other republ: seats: Bosnia and Herzego’ Croatia 14 for enii there were more candidates than vacant ina 11 candidates for 10 vacant seats, 6 for 5 and Serbia 41 for 25. The numbers of contested elections and the numbers of candi- dates in the federal and republican elections is summarized below: Chambers| Vacant | Candi- | Electoral | vim | wen |Bieot | seats | dates | districts Three | five | ions to| | | ) | with one ndi-| candi4 be re- | candidate dates peated | | only | = 6 45 re 3 1 = +d | | 428 234 m4 | 22 - 5 | | | Sloven 60 vi 7 candidates. There were 39 electoral districts with one candidate only; 17 electoral districts with two candidates for each vacant seat; and four electoral districts with three candidates for each vacant seat. In th ctoral district of Ajdovscina three candidates were lecte nal assembly to appear in the April 23 elections. They were listed as follows: 1. Branko Skrinjar 2. Grozdan Singoj; and 3. Janko Zigon. However, in the Apriloe In the electoral district Bele Palanka (on the Bulgarian border), the Party favorite, Zivojin Kitanovic, received 74 votes in the communal assembly followed by Miodrag Stojiljkovic (60) and Danilo Markovic (40). On April 23, however, Stojiljkovie received 13,965 votes, followed by Markovic’ (5,209) while Kitanovic only received 4,823 votes. The case of Miloje Miléjevic and Vojislav Paunovic in Veliko Gradiste is even more impressive. In the commu- nal assembly the Party's nominee, Paunovic, received a sweeping tiajority of 139 votes to 72 for Milojevic. However, on April 23 Paunovic received only 19,914 votes to 24,778 for Wilojevic. Croatia: 60 vacant seats and 80 candidates. There were 42 electoral districts with one candidate only, 17 with two candidates, and one electoral district with three candidates for one seat. In Donja Stupica the following three persons were nominated by the communal assembly on April 9: 1) Pavle Zukina, 2) Rudolf Sever, and 3) Bozo Gradicek, with Zukina the Party's favored cap* date. However, on April 23, it was Sever who won the seat with 7,651 votes to 6,374 votes of Gradicek and 5,628 votes of Zukina. Bosnia and Herzegovina: 60 vacant seats and 77 candidates. Siete pete 45 electecel districts with one candidate only, 10 with two candidates, and four with three candidates. (The elections in the electoral district of Grude are to take place solely because voters were not satisfied with the decision made by the Communal Assembly; also in the Sarajevo-Center electoral district, the elee— tion must be repeated, since no candidate received the necessary majority.) Especially sweeping defeat was suffered by Selim Redzhibasic in the electoral district of Gornji Vakuf where he, although head- ing the list, received only 1,804 votes to 4,731 votes for Eniz Granic. Macedonia: 50 vacant seats and 53 candidates. There were 41 electoral districts with one candidate only, four with two cand: dates and one with three candidates. (In four electoral distric the elections have to be repeated during May, probably since no candidate received the required majority of votes.) The defeat of one Party-sponsored individual is of special interest. In the electoral district of Makedonski Brod, Slobodan Kostovski was the Party favorite, followed by Nikola Vasileski and Bosko Stefanovski. In the communal assembly Kostovski and Vasileski received 31 votes each, followed by Stefanovski with 30 votes. On April 23, it was Vasileski who won with 2,766 votes followed by Stefanovski (2,477) and Kostovski (2,319).ar ONSET" 45 Montenegre: 35 vacant seats and 44 candidates. There were 26 electoral unite with one candidate only and nine electoral districts with two candidates. As far as the elected candidates for communal assemblies (both chambers) are concerned, these results will be published only much later. However, it is mown that there were at least two candi- @ates for each vacant seat, which means that, for the estimated 20,000 vacant seats, there should have been more than 40,000 candi- dates. Out of 78 electoral districts throughout Yugoslavia in which there were two or more candidates for seats in the republican assem- plies, there were a total of 23 cases in which the Party favorite failed to be elected.2 This means that the Party-backed individual was defeated by more popular individuals, whether Party or non- Party,in approximately 30% of the contested elections! This was an unprecedented if not surprising rejection of Party favorites by a public finally permitted to have some say in selecting the individuals who are supposed to represent them. The details of this moral victory over the Party by the general public, which almost certainly is a harbinger of greater victories to come as Party control is further weakened, may be seen from the following table. Republic |Total |No. of | No. of Con- | No. of | Percent of vacant|candi- | tested Blec-| Party Party seats |dates | toral dis- | Favorites| defeats in tricts Defeated | contested Blec- tions pestis 60 84 19 4 21% roatia 60 80 18 6 338 josnia & lerzegoving 60 7 14 2 144 lontenegro| 35 44 - - = jacedonia | 50 56 5 2 41g Blovenia 60 87 22 9 40% otal 325 | 428 78 23 29.47% | 5) As in other Communist countries, it has been the custom in Yugoslavia for Party favorites to be listed first on the ballots. The foregoing results are based on the assumption that the first— listed candidate in each case was the Party's nominee or the Party's preferred nominee in cases where the Party may have found it expedient to sponsor a second candidate.Fierce Electoral Campaign In the above-mentioned electoral district of Veliko Gradiste in Serbia, the electoral campaign was especially fierce. At night, unkmown persons painted slogans on walls such as: "Every- one vote for Milojevic," while their opponents inserted with black paint "don't". The formgr wrote: "We want Paunovic," while the opponents added "don't".° when the correspondent asked a pea- sant to tell him the reason why these slogans were being painted in the night end not during the day, he answere Well, before the war this district voted for the Radical Party [strongly anti-Communist and monarchist Party]. But people know what happened to the Radicals when they were ousted by the Liberal Party. Everybody imows who had to pay. This is why slogans are written only at night.7 The correspondent gave examples of how candidates were spyiw on each other and thwarting each other. Ina village near the town Loznica (in this district there were five candidates for one seat in the Federal Chamber), "spies" learned that a candidate was promising to construct a church in the village. Promptly the opposing side promised to construct a factory. On balance, the recent Yugoslav elections show a definite trend toward increased public participation in elections at all levels. For the first time there were instances of clection campaign: ing as vigorous as any seen anywhere. The substantial increase of contested seats in 1967 aver 1965, as in 1965 over 1963, is an en- couraging sign of progress toward a more representative, freer form of government. The fact that the electorate felt free to reject virtually 30% of the Party supported candidates in contested election: at the republican level is eloquent testimony not only to the un- popularity of many Party candidates but to the freedom of choice being increasingly exercised in Yugoslavia's elections. eo Slobodan Stankovic 6) Politika, Belgrade, 27 April 1967 7) qbia