Citizens said "He's finished" 19 years ago: On this day, Milosevic lost fateful elections

Today marks 19 years since former President and Hague indictee Slobodan Milosevic lost the SRJ presidential elections to Vojislav Kostunica, the candidate of the united Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS).

The presidential elections were held at the same time as the elections for the SRJ parliament and the local elections in Serbia, and the victory of the united opposition ended the ten-year autocratic rule of Milosevic.

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Unwilling to accept defeat, the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and its leader Milosevic caused a post-election crisis that threatened to produce serious conflicts and violence. The DOS called for a demonstration because the authorities did not recognize presidential election's results, and the crisis ended on October 5 after massive protests across Serbia.

In those elections, DOS candidate Vojislav Kostunica was elected president of the SRJ with 2,470,304 (50.24 percent) votes. Milosevic received 1,826,799 votes, or 37.15 percent.

On March 11, 2006, Milosevic died in the custody of the ICTY, where he was on trial for genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and war crimes against humanity in Croatia and Kosovo.

(Telegraf.rs/Beta)