A Milosevic ally backs Kostunica

A Milosevic ally backs Kostunica's victory
Agence France Presse - September 28, 2000

BELGRADE, Sept 28 - An ally of President Slobodan Milosevic added his voice Thursday to opposition calls for the Yugoslav leader to admit defeat in weekend elections and step down.

Vojislav Seselj, whose Serbian Radical party is allied with Milosevic's leftist coalition in both the Serbian and federal Yugoslav governments, said opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica won the presidential vote on Sunday.

"For us, the elections are over. According to our data, Kostunica has won in the first round and thus we will not take part in the run-off," Seselj told reporters here.

According to official results presented by the federal election commission early Thursday, Kostunica beat Milosevic in the first round polling but failed to gain the absolute majority needed to avoid a run-off.

The commission said Kostunica garnered 48.96 percent of the ballots and Milosevic 38.62 percent.

The commission called the second round for October 8, but Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition rejected the ruling as "a joke" and threatened a general strike and street protests to back its claim to victory.

"Milosevic can leave the power peacefully and with dignity, or he can leave power in a humiliating way which would be no model for Serbia," said a statement issued by the party on Thursday.

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An ally of President Slobodan Milosevic added his voice Thursday to opposition calls for the Yugoslav leader to admit defeat in weekend elections and step down.

Vojislav Seselj, whose Serbian Radical party is allied with Milosevic's leftist coalition in both the Serbian and federal Yugoslav governments, said opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica won the presidential vote on Sunday.

"For us, the elections are over. According to our data, Kostunica has won in the first round and thus we will not take part in the run-off," Seselj told reporters here.

According to official results presented by the federal election commission early Thursday, Kostunica beat Milosevic in the first round polling but failed to gain the absolute majority needed to avoid a run-off.

The commission said Kostunica garnered 48.96 percent of the ballots and Milosevic 38.62 percent.

The commission called the second round for October 8, but Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition rejected the ruling as "a joke" and threatened a general strike and street protests to back its claim to victory.

"Milosevic can leave power peacefully and with dignity, or he can leave power in a humiliating way which would be no model for Serbia," said a statement issued by the party on Thursday.

Seselj insisted that the federal electoral commission has committed "serious fraud," notably in counting ballots from the UN-administrated Kosovo province. This echoed opposition claims that thousands of non-existing votes been sent in from the province.

Seselj said representatives of his party were "expelled" together with two other non-party members and opposition officials from the election commission headquarters immediatelly after the ballot counting started late Sunday.

"All this fully calls into question the regularity of these elections," Seselj said.

"We are only afraid of bloodshed, that is something we do not want at all," Seselj said.

He called on "all the officials and state institutions to respect electoral laws."

The SRS is a coalition partner in both the Serbian and federal Yugoslav governments of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and the Yugoslav Left (JUL) group headed by his wife Mira Markovic.

But relations between Seselj and the Milosevic parties seriously deteriorated during the recent election campaign.

Seselj's party fared poorly in the elections.

Its presidential candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, obtained only 5.1 percent of the vote, while the party obtained only three seats in the lower chamber of the parliament, and two seats in the upper chamber, according to unofficial results.

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SECTION: International news - September 28, 2000, Thursday