Janković Takes Ljubljana in Landslide
Local elections held on Sunday 22 October saw independent Zoran Jankovic emerge as the new Mayor of Ljubljana with more than 63% of the vote. Unofficial results show that the independent list of the former CEO of retailer Mercator will also hold a majority in the capital's city council taking 23 of the 45 seats. While the race for mayor in Slovenia's second largest city Maribor will see a run-off between independent Gregor Pivec and the People's Party (SLS) candidate Franc Kangler, Celje and Koper witnessed convincing victories of incumbent mayors Bojan Srot (the People's Party - SLS) and Boris Popovic (Slovenia Is Ours - SJN), respectively.
The disappointing result in Ljubljana was received differently by the parliamentary parties. The president of the ruling SDS and PM Jansa Jansa said that Jankovic had the advantage of a one-year campaign and expansive funds, but also expressed hope that the situation in the capital would improve. New Slovenia (NSi) president Andrej Bajuk said that he expected France Arhar, endorsed by SDS and the NSi, would make it into the second round in Ljubljana and expressed disappointment over the fact that the NSi did not repeat its 2002 result. Janez Podobnik the president of the SLS, which was left completely empty-handed in Ljubljana, expressed satisfaction of his party's outstanding performance in terms of the number of its mayors elected.
Jelko Kacin of the opposition Liberal Democracy (LDS) assessed that the result in Ljubljana was expected and a result of the "clumsiness and counterproductive approach of the ruling parties", Borut Pahor of the Social Democrats (SD) who lost mayors in Ljubljana and Maribor focused on the party's impressive overall result and Zmago Jelincic of the National Party (SNS) criticised the concept of list running alongside parties, saying it is destabilising the political arena in Slovenia.
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