Evening star., 1931-11-04
.JUGOSLAV VOTING
TO Be BALLOTLESS
Government to Tolerate No
Opposition in Strangest
Election.
BY JOHN GUNTHER.

by Cable to The strr.
VIENNA, Austria, November 4.--One
Of the strangest election campaigns ever
seen anywhere enters its final stage
this week as the voters OF Jugoslavia
prepare for the polls Sunday 70 deter
mine the composition Of the govern
ment that Is to succeed King Alexan-
der'S dictatorship.
1t is strange because the elections
are not really elections at all. and be-
cause, no matter what happens, the
present cabinet will continue in office
more or less unchanged.
Yet elaborate and expensive para
phernalia has been used during the last
six weeks to persuade the outside world
that democracy in JugoSlavia has been
given chance TO assert itself. Moth
ing could be further from the truth.
For the elections are simuly means
whereby the present dictatorship Is to
be prolonged behind convenient semi
parliamentary facade.
Old Parties Prohibited.
The facts are these. Only one list of
candidates Is presented to the country
that of the present premier. Gen. Pera
Zivkovitch. All the old political parties
are prohibited. The King himself has
been quoted by his assistant premier
Milan Srshkitch, that strong measures
would be taken against electoral op-
ponentS, II any.
No new party can be formed until so
| signatures are found in each OF 333
| constituencies through Jugoslavia, or a
| total of almost 10000. This, OF course
| Is utterly impossible, since the police
| control petition making. Moreover, the
| party that gets Tire most votes-which
| Is absolutely certain to be Premier Ziv-
kovitehs government party-then gets
! two-thirdS OF the seats In the Chamber
| CT Deputies King Alexander himself
appoints half the members Of the senate
| for life.
Meantime any public meeting, or
| even conference of few friends, is
| absolutely prohibited without police per-
mission. Troops are to be used at the
| pooling booths at the discretion OF cleo
toral judges So far so good. But this
| by no means Is all.
| Voting Is net only not secret: It Is
not even written. No ballots exist. The
| voter appears at the booth and declares
whether or not he supports the govern
ment. If not, he is photographed and
! fingerprinted and the clerk takes the
full details of his person.
Boycott Is Result.
The result of these regulations has.
| Of course, been inevitable. namely,
united opposition has determined on .
| complete electoral boycott.
King Alexanders intention In end
ing" the dictatorship was doubtless a
desire to create new Jugoslav national
| party. What has happened is exactly
the opposite, with a cohesion Of all the
/ opposition groups in united anti-gov-
ernment front. The following parties
have declared boycott:
/ The Serb Radicals. under Aca Stano-
| ievitch, whose adherence the King had
hoped for: the Slovene Clericals, under
the noted leader Father A. Koroshetz.
who was invited by the King TO take
| part in framing the constitution, but
/ refused: the Democrats, the Serb Agra
rians, the Jugoslav Moslems. the So
cialists and the Montenegrin and Mace
domains minority parties.
Also in the opposition, of course, are
| the ira sitional dissident separate Lead
ers. like Svetozar Pribitchevitch. who
recently hunger-struck against the re-
gime, and his Independent Democratic
party, and the heads of the Croat Peas
| ant party, Dr. Vlatko Natchek and Dr.
Ante Trumbitsch. All these have Joined
in appeals to the populace to express
their opinion by staying away from the
polls.
The government, faced with this inn
| pending boycott. is proceeding with ac-
| tive campaigns. Members Of the gov
| ernment are touring the country, plead
| ing TO the people to vote. Meetings, IL
| Is said, are sparsely attended, and the
boycott has grown, especially in Slo-
venia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro.
Police pressure will doubtless be used
to break the boycott and bring out the
| vote. The issue, then, as seen by re-
| sponsible voters Is not Of contest be-
tween groups and parties but an effort
by the government alone in the field
to try to poll as big total as possible.
tCopyright. l93l.)