2000 Yugoslavian general election

In the summer immediately following the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, opposition parties began discussing who could run as a united opposition candidate in the upcoming elections. In a meeting in Budva that summer, Branislav Kovačević and Nenad Čanak proposed that Ivan Stambolić run for president with the backing of a multi-party coalition.[8] After the formal establishment of the DOS coalition, Stambolić met with Kovačević on several occasions.

Several events occurred during the spring before the election that significantly contributed to a politically volatile environment; on 13 May 2000, the Chairman of the Executive Council of Vojvodina, Boško Perošević, was assassinated. Following his assassination, the Yugoslav Left announced it would propose a Law on the Defense of the State, which was scheduled to be assessed by the Parliament on 23 May 2000.[9] Meanwhile, state-affiliated news outlets accused the opposition of the terrorism and subservience to NATO.[9][10] The law was never passed through the Parliament.[10]

In June 2000, Stambolić told Kovačević that he would run as the DOS candidate as long as the coalition parties approved of his candidacy, and that he run face-to-face against Milošević as opposed to a different SPS candidate.[8]

On 6 July 2000, the parliament amended the constitution of Yugoslavia such that the president would no longer be selected by the Parliament, but would be directly elected instead.[11] He also announced that the presidential and local elections in September would be held simultaneously; the constitution gave the president of Yugoslavia a four-year term, but Milošević organised presidential elections a year before his mandate expired.[11]

On 25 August 2000, Stambolić disappeared.[12] Witnesses said that he had been kidnapped and "thrown into a white van" after walking from Košutnjak to a local restaurant.[12] Meanwhile, the DOS coalition formally endorsed Koštunica's candidacy. Dragan Maršićanin claimed that "voters were looking for someone who was a supporter of democracy but also a proven patriot and a nationalist in the kindest sense", and expressed his opinion that Koštunica had the closest such profile.[13]

The Yugoslavian economy was struggling at the time of the elections; only a year after the NATO bombing campaign, many of the international sanctions remained in place, and inflation was over 100%.[14] In the winter before the elections, the European Union sent heating fuel to the cities of Niš and Pirot, which were governed by opposition parties.[15] Political scientist Michael Parenti asserted that the EU was ultimately denying such shipments to the remainder of Yugoslavia, offering humanitarian aid only to towns which were not governed by the ruling parties.[16]

Some Kosovo Albanians voted for Milošević in hopes that it would lead to the further disintegration of Yugoslavia.[17] This along with voter fraud and strong Kosovo Serb support allowed Milošević to win an absolute majority in the southern province of Kosovo.

The DOS coalition asked the Serbian Renewal Movement to pull Vojislav Mihailović out of the race and to endorse their candidate, but Mihailović and his party refused.[18] However, he added that if he were not to make it into a second round, that he would support Koštunica over Milošević in a runoff.[18]

Koštunica officially began his campaign in the Braničevo District on 30 August 2000.[19] On 2 September, he officially submitted his candidacy to the Federal Electoral Commission.[20] Over the course of his campaign, he emphasised that he would seek the removal of international sanctions on Yugoslavia, return the country to international institutions such as the United Nations, and solve conflicts between the constituent republics of Serbia and Montenegro.[19] Although Milo Đukanović supported Stambolić's bid for the DOS candidacy,[8] he refused to support Koštunica and boycotted the election entirely.[14] Likewise, Vuk Drašković also refused to endorse him.[14]

Furthermore, Koštunica occasionally differed from the rest of the DOS coalition, such as in his criticism of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He stated that "there are many things about the Hague tribunal that are more about politics than law", adding that Milošević's indictment would not necessarily be a priority if he were elected.[14]