The West put pressure on President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia yesterday to accept defeat in the country's presidential and municipal elections, but his backers insisted their man had triumphed.
Germany, Britain, Italy, France and the European Union declared Mr Milosevic had lost in Sunday's vote, which the main opposition candidate, Mr Vojislav Kostunica, said had delivered him a resounding "people's victory". The United States doubted Mr Milosevic could make any "credible claim of victory".
But Mr Milosevic's Socialist Party said its leader had 45 per cent, compared with 40 per cent for Mr Kostunica after 37 per cent of the vote was counted.
"It clearly shows a tendency, that we can be optimistic about the rest of the results and the probability that our candidate, Slobodan Milosevic, will win in the first round," said Ms Gorica Gajevic, secretary general of the Socialist Party.
But a colleague from another party in the ruling coalition said Mr Milosevic may fail to get 50 per cent of the vote, forcing a second-round run-off election in two weeks' time.
Ms Gajevic said preliminary results showed the coalition heading for an absolute majority in both houses of the federal parliament but set to lose control of some towns and cities in Serbian local polls also held on Sunday.
Mr Zoran Djindjic, co-ordinator of the main opposition bloc, said with results in from 60 per cent of polling stations Mr Kostunica had 55 per cent of the presidential vote and Mr Milosevic between 35 and 37 per cent. Mr Djindjic said the government's strategy appeared to be to try to force a run-off vote, giving itself a second chance of victory. The manoeuvre would fail, he added. The ultra-nationalist Radical Party also put Mr Kostunica far ahead, by 54.86 to 36.2 per cent, based on results from over half the polling stations. It also put the Democratic Opposition of Serbia bloc ahead in the parliamentary poll, with 47.91 per cent of the vote.
Turnout appeared to have exceeded 70 per cent, which analysts said benefited the opposition. At least 20,000 opposition supporters gathered in Belgrade's Republic Square for a second day to celebrate what they saw as a victory. There was no visible police presence at the square, where some 8,000 people had gathered on Sunday after polls closed.
There was no word from Mr Milosevic and there were no signs of official results more than 24 hours after the voting ended. Opposition monitors on the Federal Electoral Commission said the body did not seem to be processing results publicly.
A senior spokesman for the opposition called on the electoral commission to get to work. Last night it was still unclear when official figures would be released, with an apparent deadline of Tuesday looking less likely.