dollars were given to Otpor directly for similar purposes. Daniel Calingaert, an official with IRI, said Otpor received "some of the US$1.8 million" his institute spent in the country throughout 2000, but didn't specify the concrete figures. He also said he met Otpor leaders "seven to ten times" in Montenegro (then part of FR Yugoslavia), and Hungary, beginning in October 1999. IRI particularly focused a lot of its attention on Otpor, organizing a seminar on nonviolent resistance at the Hilton Hotel in Budapest during March 2000 and paying for about two dozen Otpor leaders to attend it. Lectured by retired U.S. Army Colonel Robert Helvey, who did two tours of duty in the Vietnam War before devoting himself to study of nonviolent resistance methods around the world, including those used in Burma and the civil rights struggle in the American South, the Serbian students received training in such matters as how to organize a strike, how to communicate with symbols, how to overcome fear and how to undermine the authorities. Transformation into a political party The official announcement of Otpor's transformation into a political party was made on 19 November 2003, days after the parliamentary elections had been set for 23 December. The party didn't name an official leader. However, cousins Slobodan Homen and Nenad Konstantinović played key roles. Asked about the new party's finances in November 2003, Konstantinović said it was funded by the Serbian companies. Otpor started its election campaign on Saturday, 29 November 2003 by submitting its 250-person candidate list. In addition to former Otpor activists such as Slobodan Homen, Nenad Konstantinović, Ivan Marović, Predrag Lečić, Stanko Lazendić, and Srđan Milivojević, the candidate list featured established professionals in other arenas such as professor and anti-corruption campaigner Čedomir Čupić, political analyst Dušan Janjić, psychologist Žarko Trebješanin, lawyer Boža Pelević, and former Serbian Supreme Court vice-president Zoran Ivošević. The candidate list named "Otpor—Freedom, Solidarity and Justice" led by Čupić fared poorly, with only 62,116 votes (1.6% of total vote) in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election, which left it out of the parliament (the census required a minimum of 5%). By spring 2004, in the aftermath of the election, the organization faced more turmoil when Branimir Nikolić, a prominent activist from Otpor's Subotica chapter, publicly accused the party central, namely Homen and Konstantinović, of embezzlement. Soon after, another member of Otpor, Zoran Matović, joined Nikolić's accusations, claiming that out of