EXCERPT: Milosevic may take 'symbolic' seat in Serbian parliament
Deutsche Presse-Agentur - December 29, 2003

Belgrade - The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) may sacrifice a seat in the upcoming parliament for its jailed leader Slobodan Milosevic, a top party official was quoted as saying Monday.

Milosevic has been in detention at The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia since June 2001 and on a war crimes trial for nearly two years.

Despite some splintering, SPS remained true to their leader and he has continued pulling strings by proxy - this month ICTY banned him from running the election campaign from a prison cell over the phone.

In Sunday's early parliamentary poll it ran under Milosevic's name and has, according to unofficial data, won 7.5 per cent of the votes and claimed 21 seats in the parliament of 250.

"We will talk with Milosevic about the seat, but now we have no way to do that," the chief of the SPS policy making body, Ivica Dacic, told the private Beta news agency.

The decision would however not be made before the New Year.

"It would be symbolic to have him as a deputy, though we have to see if he wants it. We would lose a vote in that case, but it would not change things much, as we are not in power," Dacic said.

SECTION: Politics - December 29, 2003, Monday, 12:24:46 Central European Time

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