Yugoslavia's opposition is urging people in Serbia to go out onto the streets to await the results of the presidential election on Sunday.
The campaign manager for the main opposition candidate, Dr Vojislav Kostunica, said he expected they would have sufficient information to give a provisional result of the poll by 10.00 p.m. "We will certainly go out onto the streets," said Mr Zoran Djindjic. He said that in many towns - particularly those that have been in opposition hands for the last four years, such as Nis, Cacak, Novi Sad and Kraljevo - it would be impossible to keep people at home.
The move raises the potential for conflict, particularly following the stark warning by Gen Nebojsa Pavkovic that the army would act against citizens on the streets who sought to overthrow the regime by force.
Almost every polling station in Serbia and Montenegro would have a Democratic Opposition of Serbia member on its board, Mr Djindjic said: "We are in a position to control the voting in every place where there are elections. We will have a mobile team at every polling station able to help if someone creates an incident." However, he pointed out there were many parts of the process it could not monitor. "The voting lists are made by police. The polls are controlled by the government. The courts are controlled by the Socialist party (of Mr Milosevic) and Yugoslav United Left Party (of Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic)."
He said the opposition had asked to monitor voting at military barracks but the request was denied, which was against the law.
Concern over voting fraud is highlighted by an increasing police clampdown on the non-government body, Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, which sought to monitor the election process.
Three Belgrade workers were arrested by plain-clothes police yesterday and were later said to be in the police department for economic crime.
Christian Jennings adds from Gracanica: British NATO troops acting on intelligence have foiled a Serb military terrorist plot to blow up targets inside Kosovo in the run-up to the Yugoslavian elections. "K-FOR troops arrested three persons suspected of involvement and two individuals believed to be serving or former members of the Yugoslav Army Special Forces in an obvious attempt to destabilise Kosovo," said Dr Bernard Kouchner, the UN's civil administrator in Kosovo.
"The evidence is compelling to link them to the Yugoslav Army Special Forces," said Royal Marine Brig Rob Fry, Britain's senior commander in Kosovo.