Slovenian presidential election, 2007

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Slovenia

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The 2007 Slovenian presidential election was held in two rounds, on 21 October 2007 and 11 November 2007, to choose the successor of the second president Janez Drnovšek.^[1][2] After the front runner Lojze Peterle, supported by the ruling conservative coalition, won the first round with far fewer votes than predicted by opinion polls, the second round was won by the left-wing candidate Danilo Türk with a margin of over 35%.

In a referendum called by the National Council and held on the same day as the second round of the presidential election, the government's law providing for nationalization of citizens' share in the major national insurance company was overturned with nearly 3 in 4 voters voting against the law.

Contents 1 Background 2 Candidates 3 First round campaign 4 First round results and reactions 5 Run-off campaign 6 Final results and reactions 7 Detailed results 8 External links 9 References

[edit] Background

In Slovenia, the president's role is mainly ceremonial, and in practice his powers are limited to proposing candidates for various state officials and high court judges for approval by the parliament. However, unlike the government which is chosen by a Parliament elected through proportional representation, the president is directly elected by the majority of Slovenian voters, which gives the office a measure of moral authority.^[3]

The previous presidential election, in 2002, brought major changes to Slovenian politics. Milan Kučan, who had been the president since before the independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 could not run for president again due to constitutional limits, and announced his retirement from active politics. Janez Drnovšek of Liberal Democracy of Slovenia, who had been the prime minister since shortly after independence stood for the office and comfortably won the run-off against the conservative candidate Barbara Brezigar.^[4]

For the first year, the president, who at the time was battling cancer, mostly stayed out of public sight. When he reappeared, he had changed his lifestyle, became a vegan, moved out of the capital into the countryside and completely abandoned party politics ^[5][6]

The 2004 Parliamentary Election brought further major shifts and a swing to the right. The new government was formed by Janez Janša, the leader of a right-wing coalition. For the first time in its history, the Slovenian president and prime minister would represent opposing political blocks for more than a few months. The relations between them quickly cooled, with the president publicly criticising government policy of monopolisation of power, privatisation, and treatment of the Strojans, a Roma family who were forced by their neighbours to relocate and then subjected to police supervision and limitation of movement.^[5] The disagreements further escalated when the ruling coalition repeatedly refused to approve the president's candidate for the governor of the Bank of Slovenia, starting with the incumbent governor Mitja Gaspari.^[7] The frictions continued with appointment of other state officials, including the ombudsman and the constitutional court judges.^[8]. Although the president's political support suffered after his personal transformation, the polls showed public support for the president against the increasingly unpopular government.^[9]

After years of speculation about his health and intentions, Janez Drnovšek clarified in February 2007 that he would not run for president again.^[10].

[edit] Candidates

A conservative member of the European parliament and former Prime Minister of Slovenia, Lojze Peterle, announced his candidacy in November 2006, which made him the first official candidate. He was endorsed by the three government right-wing parties, New Slovenia, the Slovenian Democratic Party, and the Slovenian People's Party.

After Drnovšek announced that he would not run again, it was widely expected that the Social Democrats would nominate their leader Borut Pahor. The Social Democrats had by that time become the most popular party in opinion polls and were widely expected to win the next general elections in 2008; opinion polls indicated that he would easily win the election. However, after months of mixed signals, Pahor finally announced that he would concentrate on the general elections and would not run for the mostly ceremonial office of the president.

Instead, Social Democrats nominated Danilo Türk, a former Slovenian ambassador and high official in the United Nations. He was also endorsed by Zares, a splinter party made up of many of the members of parliament who left Liberal Democracy, which quickly disintegrated in opposition after 10 years in government, and the pensioners' party DeSUS.

Liberal Democracy nominated Mitja Gaspari, the former governor of the Bank of Slovenia, and the populist, nationalist, and anti-clerical Slovenian National Party nominated its leader, Zmago Jelinčič. Other candidates, none of whom were expected to win a significant share of votes, were Darko Krajnc of the formerly parliamentarian Youth Party of Slovenia, the disabled rights activist Elena Pečarič, and the independent Monika Piberl.

Early polls indicated that Peterle, who had been campaigning for months and cultivated the image of a "man of the people", would win the election in a run-off against Türk or possibly Gaspari.

[edit] First round campaign

The official election campaign started in late September 2007. The campaigns of the three frontrunners were based mostly on the personal appeal of the candidates, with few concrete statements about political issues. Zmago Jelinčič led a lively campaign, denouncing the frontrunners, the government, ethnic minorities, and the Catholic church, and demanding aggressive policy towards the neighbouring Croatia.

Subjects of the televised debates included the rules for voting of non-resident nationals. These were changed by the national electoral commission during the campaign, which sent voting materials to all non-residents on register, and not just to those who requested them, as was the practice previously. Peterle, who was expected to benefit from the increased voting of Slovenian post-WWII emigrants in Argentina, supported the change, while other candidates opposed it because of the lack of reliable records of voter's addresses and because the rules were changed after the campaign had already started.

The campaign was overshadowed by other political events. A petition alleging government meddling in journalism which was started during the summer and signed by hundreds of Slovenian journalists from the major media, was submitted to the parliament during the presidential election campaign. Another event which drew much debate was the Supreme Court's annulment of the 1946 conviction of Gregorij Rožman, effectively rehabilitating the Catholic bishop who had been found guilty of war crimes and treason during WWII for his collaboration with the Italian and later German occupation forces. After several attempts to review the trial had failed during the 1990s, Janša's government changed the law to allow religious organisations to request a review of trials of their deceased members, which was previously reserved for close relatives. After the Archdiocese of Ljubljana initiated the review, the Supreme Court annulled the 1946 trial on procedural grounds, causing much controversy. This proved to be harmful for Peterle's campaign, as he is closely associated with the Catholic Church ^[11][12]. In a TV debate, when asked about the Rožman case Peterle confined himself to remarking that he was a supporter of the rule of law, that the war had divided the nation and that Rožman had played some part in that ^[13].

The last opinion polls published before the first round predicted that Peterle would win 40% of the vote and go to the run-off against either Türk or Gaspari, both at 20-25%, with most polls predicting a substantially larger share for Türk.^[14]

[edit] First round results and reactions

The first round brought unexpected results. Contrary to predictions, Peterle won less than 29% of the vote, with Türk and Gaspari close second and third. Jelinčič, who according to opinion polls was expected to win around 12% of the vote, actually won over 20%, finishing first in two of the eight electoral units.

Prime minister Janez Janša blamed Peterle's poor showing on "certain subjects" that were brought up during the campaign by "hidden centres of power", referring to the journalists' petition and the timing of the Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court publicly responded with indignation and denied any political motivation.

[edit] Run-off campaign

Following the unexpected results of the first round, new opinion polls showed major changes, giving Türk a large lead over Peterle. After the surprise gains of the flamboyant Zmago Jelinčič in the first round, the campaigns of both candidates opted for more concrete political statements in advertising and debates.

Peterle replaced the head of his campaign, and concentrated on questioning Türk's role in the 1991 secession from Yugoslavia, alleging that at the time when Peterle as the prime minister won independence for Slovenia, Türk continued to represent Yugoslavia in international institutions. The campaign was backed by the Prime Minister Janša and the Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel who went so far as to confirm Peterle's claims on the Foreign Ministry's official website.

Türk denied the allegations, pointing to his opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune advocating international recognition of Slovenia, and the fact that it was Rupel himself who in 1992 appointed Türk the ambassador to the UN and praised him for his service to the country.

The new strategy appeared to backfire, and the polls before the run-off predicted that Türk would win between 63% and over 70% of the vote.^[15][16]

[edit] Final results and reactions

The run-off was held on 11 November 2007. Exit poll results published at the closing of the vote predicted 69% for Türk. Peterle conceded immediately. By midnight, unofficial results from the Electoral Commission gave Türk 68% vs. 32% lead, with Peterle narrowly winning in four of 88 electoral districts.

Two days after the election, prime minister Janša announced that he might resign following what is perceived as a heavy defeat for the government: "We will analyze the situation further, but all possibilities are open, including the resignation of the government." He said that "it is particularly worrying that a lot of energy was invested in blackening the government abroad," claiming his opponents portrayed Slovenia "as Belarus" or some other authoritarian country. The opposition parties called talk of resignation just weeks before Slovenia takes over European Union presidency irresponsible and unwise,^[17] but the Prime Minister called a vote of confidence for 19 November 2007.^[18] The government won the confidence vote, but backing for the ruling SDS is at an all-time low with only 18% of voters intending to vote for it in the fall 2008 election.^[19]

[edit] Detailed results

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 21 October and 11 November 2007 Slovenian presidential election results

Candidate and nominating party	1st round		2nd round
	Votes	%	Votes	%
Lojze Peterle (independent, supported by New Slovenia, the Slovenian Democratic Party and the Slovenian People's Party)	283,412	28.73	318,288	31.97
Danilo Türk (independent, supported by the Social Democrats, the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, Zares and Active Slovenia)	241,349	24.47	677,333	68.03
Mitja Gaspari (independent, supported by the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia)	237,632	24.09
Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti (Slovenian National Party)	188,951	19.16
Darko Krajnc (Youth Party of Slovenia)	21,526	2.18
Elena Pečarič (independent, supported by the Akacije party)	8,830	0.89
Monika Piberl (Women's Voice of Slovenia)	4,729	0.48
Valid	986,429	100.0	995,621	100.0
Invalid	5,279	0.53%	9,738	0.97%
Total	991,708		1,005,359
Source: Center Vlade za informatiko

[edit] External links

• Presidential Election - A November Surprise

[edit] References

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