Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Tuesday he accepted the
preliminary results of Montenegro's independence referendum that
heralded the tiny Balkan republic's breakaway from the state union
of Serbia-Montenegro.
"As a president I advocated preservation of the state union, but
as a president of a democratic country, I am ready to accept the
majority decision of the people of Montenegro," Tadic told a press
conference.
He called on all political factors in Serbia and Montenegro to
enable the Republican Referendum Commission (RRC) in Montenegro to
establish the final results and remove all doubts regarding the
course of the referendum process.
At the Sunday referendum, 55.5 percent of citizens voted for an
independent Montenegro, while 44.5 percent voted for the survival
of the state union with Serbia, according to preliminary results
that the RRC released on Tuesday.
The turnout was 86.49 percent, with 230,711 citizens voting for
independent Montenegro and 184,954 voting against, said Frantisek
Lipka, president of the RRC.
The release of the final results will depend on the number of
complaints, said Lipka, adding that the RRC has not received any to
date and complaints may be submitted within three days.
Under conditions mediated by the European Union, Montenegro's
independence will not be valid unless the referendum passes the
threshold of 55 percent of votes with a turnout of at least half of
the mountainous republic's 484,718 registered voters.
On Tuesday, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that
Serbia would fully respect results of the Montenegrin referendum,
but warned that there should not be any doubts concerning the
referendum.
"Submission of complaints and response to them still remains, so
we shall have to wait for the final results," Kostunica told
reporters after his meeting with European Union envoy for the
Montenegrin referendum Miroslav Lajcak.
He reiterated that, according to the Constitutional Charter of
Serbia-Montenegro, Serbia is the legal successor of the loose state
union of Serbia-Montenegro, which was renamed from the Yugoslav
federal republic in February 2003.
(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2006)
