Vinci on the voting in Serbia

CNN Belgrade Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci

CNN Correspondent Alessio Vinci is in Belgrade, where he was in October when demonstrators took over the Parliament building. He watched as the nation went to the polls on Saturday.

Q : What was the atmosphere like at the polls?

Vinci : Despite the fact that the turnout was lower than expected, there was a lot of anticipation for the people. The people understood this was their second chance to get rid of the remnants of the Milosevic regime. People told us they were happy with the fact that they knew that their vote would be counted for the person they were supporting. Everyone understood that after the second round of voting.

What everybody is telling me is, "We want to return to normality. We want Serbia to become a boring country." People are telling me, "I want to go out, go to a movie, go to a restaurant." There have been too many years of abnormality -- years of war, bombings, sanctions. They're saying, "We just want to be able to take care of our families, to go on holidays. We want normality."

Q : Was there any of the energy that was so evident on the day the people took over the parliament building? Do they see this as a natural extension of that day?

Vinci : Politically, yes, but not emotionally. The lower turnout was the best indication of that. Two reasons, perhaps. The first one is that all the opinion polls indicated that the pro-democracy alliance was leading; they were given as much as 70 percent of seats available, in the opinion polls.

Secondly, this is the first times Serbs vote on a Saturday. This is a working day here, and perhaps people didn't feel like going to the voting station after the end of their working day.

There were election poster put up that said "certify" across them, meaning, certify the decision. Another was a large brain, meaning, "Use your brain."

Certainly there was a big campaign to bring the people to the polling stations.

Q : Do the people across Yugoslavia share the emotions of what we've seen in Belgrade?

Vinci : I would say yes. But the leaders of the other town across the country were the leaders, the major push in October, that brought about the changes. We're still waiting to see how many people turn out at the polls in other parts of Serbia. Although it was a vote that was pretty much given, certainly the people understood that it was important to come out.

Q : Is there any fear that Milosevic won't go quietly?

Vinci : I think he's already gone, frankly speaking. Milosevic is pretty much already gone from the political scene. He will not become a member of Parliament. Certainly Mr. Milosevic will try to stay afloat, but it's going to be difficult for him.

Most likely Mr. Milosevic will end up in court here, but he will be tried for crimes committed against the Serb people, instead of war crimes.

President Kostunica is a man who wants to respect the law, in all its forms. The reformers have said that the first thing this country needs is the rule of law. The last thing they need is to go on a witch hunt. They're going to try to apply the rule of law of this country. So they're going to look back and say, "What exactly did Mr. Milosevic do against the Serb people, things like embezzlement or tax fraud. Not just hypothetical war crimes. There is no way they will extradite Mr. Milosevic to The Hague. They say the tribunal is too narrow to deal with him.

Zoran Djindjic, soon to become prime minister, told me recently: "Mr. Milosevic has really been reduced to nothing. We will find a little-known judge to issue a warrant for tax fraud" or something similar. It's really a question to them to not make this a huge international case. They want him to stand to answer for his deeds in front of the Yugoslav people.

Q : Did the recent delay in the American presidential election impact the Serb election?

Vinci : There is one thing a lot of the people were telling me here, and that is: "Thank God that we did not have elections after the U.S. elections."

The elections here in September were contested, as they were contested in Florida. Many people feel Mr. Milosevic would have had a bigger hand in manipulating the vote if it had happened after the U.S. election.

People here also see the Florida situation as a lesson for democracy; No matter how contested it was, at the end of the day, it worked. Here you would have had tanks in the middle of the street.

Here the people look at America with perhaps a little sarcasm, but also, looking beyond that, people understood that democracy worked, and the rules have to be respected. Here there was no court to go to. They were all in the hands of Mr. Milosevic.

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