The Serbian politicians who united to overthrow Slobodan Milosevic two years ago are now so divided that their backbiting threatens to thrust a strident ultra-nationalist and one of the ousted leader's main allies back into the political front line.
Sunday's Serbian presidential election race between Mr Vojislav Kostunica, who replaced Mr Milosevic as Yugoslav President, and economist Mr Miroljub Labus were declared invalid because less than the required 50 per cent of voters turned out.
There is now every chance that Mr Vojislav Seselj - the man Mr Milosevic backed for president from his prison cell in The Hague - will win through to the second round in a rerun of the poll.
Sunday's election was scuppered partly due to a boycott called by Mr Seselj and partly because ordinary people are dismayed that government leaders seem to spend more time fighting among themselves than in trying to wrestle the country out of the economic doldrums. Mr Seselj is also a master at reading the pulse of the electorate in southern Serbia where hundreds of thousands of jobs are likely to be lost in economic reforms.
He is now expected to build on his unexpected success in the first round of the presidential elections on September 29th, when he came a close third in a field of 11 candidates. "The candidates who would make it to the second round of the repeated elections would most probably be Kostunica and Seselj," the VIP news agency reported in Belgrade yesterday, echoing the thoughts of many observers.
Mr Seselj's hand will probably be strengthened by intensified bickering in the ruling DOS coalition in the aftermath of the Sunday's election debacle.
The feuding runs deep. Mr Kostunica has argued with the Serbian Prime Minister, Mr Zoran Djindjic, about the pace of change and the handing over of war crimes suspects, including Mr Milosevic, to The Hague tribunal. Mr Kostunica favours slower economic reforms and he was furious when Mr Djindjic masterminded Mr Milosevic's surrender to the UN court in June last year, having wanted instead to put him on trial in Serbia.
Mr Djindjic subsequently backed Mr Labus in the presidential race, but even they argued in the final days of the campaign last week. Of the 45.5 per cent of voters who bothered to turn out, a third voted for Mr Labus, who is unlikely to run again, and two-thirds for Mr Kostunica.
Arguments are likely to centre on how and when the new elections will be held. The current Serbian President Milan Milutinovic is on The Hague's wanted list but has been deemed immune from prosecution until his term expires in January. Under the present system, a new poll should be held within 60 days - but moves are afoot to try to change the 50 per cent turnout rule which would put a new election back by months. This would give valuable time to Mr Seselj to consolidate his unexpectedly high showing in the first round, when he scored over 23 per cent - just 4 per cent less than Mr Labus. If a new election is delayed, an interim president will be appointed.
"The election laws represent a major concern and disgrace," Mr Kostunica said at a midnight news conference in Belgrade on Sunday. He added that he had lived to see the fall of the regimes of Josip Broz and Slobodan Milosevic, and there was no reason for him "not to live to see the fall of Zoran Djindjic's regime".
His rival, Mr Labus, said yesterday: "We should all look ourselves in the mirror and ask why more than 50 per cent of the voters did not vote, even though it is clear to all that Serbia needs a president."
If eventual new elections do lead to a run-off between Mr Seselj and Mr Kostunica, Mr Djindjic "will find himself in an unpleasant position," according to the VIP news agency. "If he does not reach an agreement with Kostunica, he will not be able publicly to support either of these two candidates, which will only complicate the political situation in the country for a period of several months. Djindjic cannot publicly call for a boycott, but he cannot support Seselj either."