site.btaOctober 6, 2000: Slobodan Milosevic Concedes Defeat in Presidential Elections in Yugoslavia

Twenty-four years ago, on October 6, 2000, Slobodan Milosevic announced that he was stepping down from power after the Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia upheld Vojislav Kostunica's victory in the presidential elections held on September 24, 2000.

Tensions in Yugoslavia were steadily rising between September 24 and October 6, which escalated with the largest nationwide rally in the capital Belgrade on October 5, 2000, in support of Kostunica and demanding that incumbent President Milosevic concede defeat in the elections.

Milosevic was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician. His career included the positions of Chair of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia since its establishment in 1990. He was president of Serbia between 1989 and 1997, and president of Yugoslavia between 1997 and 2000. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia under the UN charged him in 1999 for war crimes connected to the Bosnian War, Croatian War of Independence and Kosovo War.