Kostunica Remains Serbia's Most Popular Politician, DPA, Jul 19 BELGRADE -- Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica retains his position as the most popular politician in Serbia, the Belgrade- based Strategic Marketing polling agency said Wednesday. According to a survey conducted July 3-9 on 2,000 people throughout Serbia, Kostunica was rated positively by 72 percent of those polled. On a scale of one to five, he was rated 4.0 on average. Kostunica's only rival within the ruling Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, had a 40 percent positive and a 44 percent negative rating and was rated at just 2.8. The agency said Djindjic's roughly equal positive and negative rating was directly linked to the polarization over his decision to extradite the deposed Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic to the United Nations war crimes tribunal. The survey confirmed the strong popularity of new Serbian political figures, the central bank governor Mladjan Dinkic, outgoing and future federal deputy premier Miroljub Labus and Yugoslav foreign minister Goran Svilanovic. As in earlier surveys, the three trailed Kostunica as the most popular, Dinkic, rated 3.5, and Labus and Svilanovic at 3.4 each. Svilanovic is the chief of the DOS-member Civic Alliance of Serbia, while Dinkic and Labus informally head the G17 Plus think tank, which is believed to be preparing for transformation into a political party. Breaking into the five most popular for the first time was Serbian deputy premier Nebojsa Covic and chief of the DOS-member Democratic Alternative, rated at 3.2. The Strategic Marketing said that he was rewarded for negotiating the disbanding of ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Presevo Valley and the return of security forces into the Kosovo buffer last May. Most prominent officials of the former regime, including Milosevic, fared poorly - Milosevic was rated at 1.9, the informal leader of his Socialist Party of Serbia, Branislav Ivkovic was at 2.1 and the nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj at 1.9. Generally, Serbia today is polarized on two large groups - one that sees both Kostunica and Djindjic as positive characters and the other that likes Kostunica only, the agency said. Just 8.1 percent of the voters remained outside of those two groups, rating both leaders as negative. NSP Lista isprobava demokratiju u praksi ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrBE8.bVKZIq Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
