http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=203660

Kosovo Serb Opposition Chiefs Slam Yugoslav Poll Decision

PRISTINA, Sep 27, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) The leaders of the Serb
opposition in the UN-run province of Kosovo dismissed Tuesday the
announcement that a second round would be held in the Yugoslav presidential
poll
as a Slobodan Milosevic trick.

"Of course it's a trick. We expected this," said Oliver Ivanovic, the leader
of the
Serbian National Council in Kosovska Mitrovica, who backed opposition
challenger Vojislav Kostunica's presidential bid.

Ivanovic insisted that the announcement had been made by supporters of
President
Milosevic on the Yugoslav electoral commission without a full consultation
with
opposition representatives.

"It's not a final decision," he said, "I think everything will become clear
tomorrow."

Ivanovic said that Kostunica had won 54 percent of the vote in Sunday's
election,
and there was therefore no need to hold a second round before declaring him
the
winner.

Despite the anger felt by opposition supporters, no protests would be held,
Ivanovic said.

Momcilo Trajkovic, leader of the Serbian Resistance Movement, said it was
"obvious that the Central Election Commission supported Milosevic."

"We don't think that the results given were correct. I'm sure votes were
stolen," he
said.

Earlier Tuesday, the electoral commission broke two days of silence after
the
Sunday vote to announce the first official results, saying that Kostunica
had won
48.2 percent of the vote to Milosevic's 40.2 percent, according to Serbian
state
television.

A Yugoslav presidential candidate requires 50 percent to be declared the
outright
winner, failing which a run-off has to be called within two weeks. In this
case, the
run-off would have to be held by October 8.

The results, released in a statement on Serbian state television, were based
on a
preliminary tally from 10,153 of the 10,500 polling stations.

Kostunica, whose supporters claim had already won an absolute majority in
Sunday's presidential poll, rejected the idea of a second poll.

Kosovo has been run by a UN administration since June last year following
the
end of the 1998-1999 civil war between ethnic Albanian separatists and
Belgrade's forces.

The ethnic Albanian majority population in the province, which remains
legally part
of Yugoslavia, massively boycotted Sunday's poll, according to the UN and
opposition monitors. Around 70 percent of the some 24,000 Serb voters who
did
turn out backed Milosevic, according to provisional results given by the
parties.


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