The man credited with turning Mercator into the country's leading retailer is set to get a chance to lead the city of Ljubljana for the next four years. Zoran Jankovic is headed for an overwhelming win in Slovenia's capital, according to unofficial results. Meanwhile, the race for mayor of Slovenia's second-largest city, Maribor, is set to be decided in a run-off between two right-leaning candidates.
Incomplete unofficial results give Jankovic, who ran as an independent, 63.32% of the mayoral vote, well ahead of France Arhar, an independent candidate with the backing of three ruling centre-right parties, who secured just over 20%.
Making for an even sweeter victory for the 53-year-old businessman is the fact that his star-studded list looks to have won a majority of the seats in the Ljubljana city council.
This will save Jankovic the time of forming coalitions in the city council in a bid to push through his key projects, which include the construction of a new stadium, the upgrade of the public transport network and the construction of a mosque.
Although confident of victory prior to Sunday, Jankovic admitted after the results were out that he was not expecting such an overwhelming expression of support from the voters. He threw a huge party in the centre of Ljubljana to celebrate.
Jankovic will takeover from Danica Simsic of the Social Democrats (SD), who managed no more than third place, with just under 8% of the vote. Her fate is in line with the predictions of pundits, who said the incumbent would be punished by voter disillusionment with the political elite in the capital city.
The situation was less clear-cut in Maribor, where independent Gregor Pivec and Franc Kangler of the coalition People's Party (SLS) will face the run-off in two weeks. The incumbent, Boris Sovic of the Social Democrats (SD) was voted out of office after two terms with only 17% of the vote.
Notwithstanding the vote for mayor, working class Maribor, a liberal stronghold, has taken a turn towards the right, as centre-right parties have gained ground compared to four years ago. The SDS took first place with just over 13%, followed by the SD with 12.6% and LDS with 11.1%.
However, building a coalition will be difficult for any side, as 15 parties and lists have made it to the 45-member city council according to preliminary results. The most notable among them is the List of Justice and Development of media mogul Stojan Auer, which won 5 seats with 8.8%, while Auer himself clinched 16.6% in the mayoral race.
Left-leaning political analyst Vlado Miheljak believes Jankovic secured many votes among undecided voters and was helped with this by the ruling parties, who were unable to prop up the less-than-impressive Arhar campaign.
This is disputed by Janez Markes, the editor-in-chief of right-leaning political weekly Mag, who points to the poor performance of other left-leaning parties in Ljubljana, including the LDS and SD.
Both Miheljak and Markes agree that the outcome of the local polls cannot be understood to have serious implications for any of the parties on the national level since priorities of voters in local elections are often different to those in parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, Miheljak believes the victory is a lift for the left, which has been soul-searching since its defeat in the 2004 general election.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister and SDS leader Janez Jansa said the outcomes in Ljubljana and Maribor point to a phenomenon that is the independent candidate. In his opinion, the trend of independents is sweeping Slovenia just as it has swept through other European countries, particularly in central Europe.
As it stands, the situation in the biggest Slovenian cities will be somewhat different than until today, somewhat better, Jansa said as he commented the initial results from Sunday's local elections.
Nationwide, the SLS has the largest number of mayors (35), followed by the SDS (14), LDS (10) and SD (7). As many as 45 who won the first round mayors are independents or have been put forward by non-party lists.
According to the latest figures from the National Electoral Commission, the turnout was at 57.6%. Four years ago, when local elections were held simultaneously with the presidential poll, the turnout was 71.2%.
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