Serbia yesterday held presidential and parliamentary elections boycotted by major opposition parties, raising the likelihood that long-ruling left-wing coalition would return to power for another four years.
Two hours after voting ended the electoral commission appeared to dash opposition hopes that voter turnout would fall beneath the legal minimum of 50 per cent and invalidate the elections. Radio Belgrade reported an average turnout of about 60 per cent in towns of about 60 per cent in towns across Serbia proper, excluding Kosovo province where Albanians boycotted the polls.Voters were choosing among three leading candidates to replace the Serbian leader, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, as president since his switch to the presidency of federal Yugoslavia in June. They were also electing a 250-seat parliament with Mr Milosevic's Socialist party (SPS) at the head of a coalition bidding for an absolute majority in the absence of a real opposition challenge. The coalition was headed for victory despite its record of responsibility for the violent disintegration of old Yugoslavia in 1991-92 and economic and diplomatic isolation ever since.Two of the three opposition parties, who dented a 50-year communist-socialist monopoly of power with victories in Belgrade and other cities at municipal elections last November, decided to boycott yesterday's elections. They accused Mr Milosevic of rigging the voting system against them with changes to the electoral law and refused to endorse the presidential campaign of their former ally, the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) leader, Mr Vuk Draskovic.
He was thought too weak a candidate to defeat the Socialist flagbearer, Mr Zoran Lilic, and his main rival, Mr Vojislav Seselj of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS).