Serbia has no leaders

last updated 8 January 2015

Belgrade

Serbia has failed to elect a president for the third time this year because not enough voters showed up at the polls. Turnout in the election this week was 38 percent, far short of the 51 percent necessary for a valid result. The failed election is doubly distressing this time around because there’s no parliament, either—the legislature was dissolved last week after a no-confidence vote in the government. New parliamentary elections are scheduled for the end of December, and analysts fear the general apathy and disillusionment in the country will play into the hands of ultranationalists. “We are entering a dangerous, dramatic phase,” said former deputy prime minister Zarko Korac. Serbia is the larger of the two states that make up Serbia and Montenegro, the remnants of Yugoslavia. The country does have a federal president, who presides loosely over both parts.