| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Serbs approve new constitution |
| 2006-10-30 |
| Serbia has adopted its first constitution of the post-Milosevic era after a last-minute surge to the polls saved a two-day referendum from failure due to insufficient turnout. According to preliminary results from the respected national polling organisation CESID, 51.6 per cent of the electorate of 6.6 million voted in favour of the constitution. Overall turnout was 53.5 per cent. The document of 206 articles includes a preamble reaffirming Serbian sovereignty over the breakaway province of Kosovo, whose 90 per cent ethnic Albanian majority ignored the vote, saying it made no difference to their demand for independence. The previous constitution under the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 1990 stripped Kosovo its autonomy and ushered in a decade of oppression culminating in a war with NATO that ended with Kosovo being removed to United Nations control. |
| Posted by:Fred |