Slovenians Elect Tuerk New President

Slovenian voters have overwhelmingly elected former senior UN diplomat Danilo Tuerk the new president of Slovenia. In his acceptance speech, Tuerk thanked the voters for the confidence in him and said he would work to be a uniter.

Unofficial results of what is the fourth presidential election in independent Slovenia give Tuerk 68.23% of the vote against Peterle's 31.77%. The turnout was at nearly 58%, which is slightly more than in the first round, but down on previous presidential elections.

The wide margin of victory surprised SDS vice-president Milan Zver, who was filling in for SDS leader and Prime Minister Janez Jansa in commenting on the outcome. However, Zver does not not believe that the result is a bad omen for the government parties ahead of next year's parliamentary election, as there is a lot of time left and the parliamentary election is of a different format.

A big gain for Tuerk in the second round were the votes of Zmago Jelincic, the leader of the opposition National Party (SNS), who got nearly 20% in the first round. The exit polls show that around four-fifths of SNS voters gave their votes to Tuerk. In a response, Jelincic said that the outcome was more a case of voters opting against Peterle than for Tuerk, who was viewed as representing conservative views and being affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church.

The new Slovenian president, entered the presidential race as a little-known albeit distinguished diplomat having spent 13 years at the United Nations. Tuerk was posted to the United Nations in 1992 as the first Slovenian ambassador. His eight-year stint as Slovenia's ambassador was followed by promotion to assistant UN secretary general for political affairs, a post he held between 2000 and 2005 as the highest ranking Slovenian UN official ever. Disappointed that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan failed to appoint him under-secretary-general for political affairs, Tuerk, a doctor of international law, stepped down and in 2006 returned to the Ljubljana Faculty of Law as professor of international law.

Official results are to be announced on 19 November, after votes from abroad are counted, but they cannot have a major impact on the result. Tuerk, who is currently a professor of international law at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law, will be sworn in on 22 December, taking over from Janez Drnovsek, who decided not to contest a second term.

Source: Slovenian Government Communication Office.

Board Meeting in Copenhagen

The EAPC Board has met in Copenhagen to prepare the next conference in May and to plan the work for the next months till the new Board will be elected in Copenhagen. Board Member and Conference Chairman Jan Juul Christensen presented the Conference theme “Public affairs in a Changing Environment” as well as a preliminary program and PR-activities to promote the Conference. On October 1 a website will be launched for the Conference with information about the Conference and about the lovely City of Copenhagen. In the meantime you can find a small summary on our website at Next meeting. But this was not the only point on the Agenda. The Board agreed on a working plan to modernize and improve the Association. A group is going to work on the modernization of the web and another group is preparing a plan of action for the future till the Conference in May. If you are considering becoming a member of the EAPC this is for sure the moment to join us.

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