Slovenians elect ex-diplomat Danilo Tuerk as new president

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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SHOTLIST 1. Danilo Tuerk, presidential candidate arriving at election headquarter 2. Tuerk greeting supporters, assembled media 3. Pan from media to Tuerk shaking hands with former president Milan Kucan 4. Tuerk hugging supporter 5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Danilo Tuerk, presidential candidate: "My message to Slovenian people is let's work together for further improvement of our country in all fields of our work. To the European Union, I would say, Slovenia is your solid, faithful, and credible partner. Rely on us and we be and we'll be a good president of European Union in first 6 months of next year." 6. Tuerk with his family on stage 7. Close of Tuerk 8. Tuerk posing for photographers 9. Tuerk with family 10. Wide bar in central Ljubljana where rival, former Prime Minister Lojze Peterle supporters gathered 11. Peterle interviewed 12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lojze Peterle, presidential candidate: "The result is very clear. My result is close to the three so called spring parties this time, so around thirty percent. And I think this is not good for Slovenia, that now we have such unbalanced situation." 13. Wide of bar STORYLINE Longtime Slovenian diplomat Danilo Tuerk overwhelmingly won the country's presidential elections, according to nearly complete results released by the state-run Electoral Commission. Tuerk, 55, had 68 percent of votes with about 99 percent of the ballots counted on Sunday. His rival, former Prime Minister Lojze Peterle, had 32 percent. Complete, official results should be announced in a week. Peterle was backed by the centre-right governing coalition, and the outcome of the election sent a warning to Prime Minister Janez Jansa's centre-right government a year before parliamentary elections. Peterle, a member of European parliament, conceded defeat. Tuerk, who ran as independent but was supported by leftist opposition parties, said winning the post was joyful, but also carried obligations. Tuerk, Slovenia's former ambassador to the United Nations and later an assistant to its secretary general, will replace President Janez Drnovsek, who decided not to seek a second term. His term expires December 22 and the new president will be sworn in for a five-year term a day before that. Tuerk praised the elections as a "celebration of democracy" while his supporters applauded and whistled. "My message to Slovenian people is lets work together for further improvement of our country in all fields of our work," he told AP Television. "To the European Union, I would say, Slovenia is your solid, faithful, and credible partner," he added. Many in Slovenia saw Sunday's vote as a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Janez Jansa's centre-right government a year before parliamentary elections. The job of president is largely ceremonial but it carries authority in some defence and foreign matters. Tuerk is not expected to change Slovenia's alliances with Europe and Washington. The country of 2 million (m) people, which seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991, joined the European Union and NATO in 2004. It will take over the EU's rotating presidency January 1. Tuerk's victory is a blow to Jansa, whose government's popularity has already been shrinking. And it will likely invigorate the leftist opposition before parliamentary elections next year. Peterle, 59, had promised to nurture "cooperative" relations with Jansa. Peterle became the country's first prime minister in 1990, when his Christian Democratic Party-led coalition won the first multiparty elections. He held the post until 1992 and was foreign minister in 1993-4 and again briefly in 2000. He has been in the European parliament since 2004. About 1.7 million Slovenians were eligible to vote. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/59e3b5825a54f8346cae8c47a945ba1c Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork