Subject: Milosevic's party claims parliamentary victory
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 10:40:14 PDT
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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BELGRADE, Sept 26 (AFP) - A close ally of Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic announced Tuesday that the ruling leftist
coalition had won weekend parliamentary elections, although no
official results of the vote were released.
"We have won the elections which are the most important in every
country, the parliamentary ones," said Ivica Dacic, head of the
Belgrade branch of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia.
Dacic made no mention of the presidential vote, which
independent monitors and the opposition say were won by Milosevic's
main challenger, Vojislav Kostunica.
He insisted that Milosevic's Socialists and their allies of the
neo-communist Yugoslav left "will have a large majority in the
parliament and the Yugoslav government."
Nevertheless, Dacic admitted his party had lost local polls in a
number of municipalities in Serbia, including Belgrade.
"We have lost, we have failed to win the power in town, but we
did not have it," Dacic said, adding that the leftist coalition has
won only four of 110 seats in Belgrade city council.
The coalition backing Kostunica, the Democratic Opposition of
Serbia, said it had won total control of the city council.
"The politics has its victories and its defeats, and we will
remain opposition in Belgrade," Dacic said.
The official election commission has released no results since
Sunday's voting, fueling fears Milosevic could try to steal the
vote.
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