Serbia’s Ruling Party Claims Victory in Vote; Boycott Fails

Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialist Party claimed victory early today in Serbian elections, a vote many of his opponents boycotted because they said it was rigged.

“It is obvious that our party has a substantial lead in both the presidential and parliamentary elections,” party spokesman Ivica Dacic said. Preliminary results were expected this afternoon.

Milosevic, who controls the state media, was expected from the beginning to see his party triumph in Sunday’s vote.

Constitutionally barred from running for a third term as president of the Serbian republic, Milosevic this summer engineered his appointment as president of Yugoslavia and maintained his sweeping control of Serbia and of the elections.

In protest, an alliance of pro-democracy parties urged Serbs to boycott, hoping that at least 51% of the 7 million registered voters would help make the vote invalid by not participating.

Electoral officials said the exact turnout would be announced today, but they added that more than 51% of the electorate had voted.

Milosevic’s protege, Zoran Lilic, looked certain to take the presidency, or at least face a runoff in two weeks against either ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj or opposition candidate Vuk Draskovic.

A Lilic victory would complete a deft job swap Milosevic engineered this summer. Lilic was Yugoslav president until July, when parliament elected Milosevic to the job of leading the country, which consists of Serbia and tiny Montenegro.

The ballot was expected to leave the 250-seat Serbian parliament dominated by a coalition of Socialists and a leftist party headed by Milosevic’s wife, Mirjana Markovic.

The elections could seal the demise of the opposition coalition that undermined Milosevic last winter with several local election victories. Milosevic annulled the results, setting off three months of daily protests. Those, combined with international pressure, forced him to accept the opposition victories.

International monitors were watching Sunday’s elections. However, those calling for a boycott said the 170 foreigners were too few to prevent vote rigging at the 9,827 polling stations.