Yugoslav election body orders second round of elections

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- President Slobodan Milosevic and challenger Vojislav Kostunica must undergo a second round of elections, Yugoslavia's electoral body has ruled.

The announcement early on Thursday came as the opposition continued to assert that they had won outright in Sunday's polls, accusing Milosevic of vote-rigging.

In an address to 200,000 supporters in a Belgrade square on Wednesday night, opposition leaders vowed not to compromise with Milosevic.

"This time it will not take them 88 days to accept the truth, they have less than 24 hours to do that," Kostunica said in a rousing speech.

He was recalling the 1996-97 campaign of nightly protests that eventually forced Milosevic to admit defeat in municipal elections, whose results the government was accused of falsifying.

Kostunica did not say what the opposition would do to support its assertion, based on figures from activists at polling stations around the country, that he took more than 50 percent of the vote.

But he reiterated that he would boycott any run-off against Milosevic.

VIDEO GALLERY Watch video from CNN's Yugoslavia election coverage     IMAGE GALLERY Images from the historic vote     MESSAGE BOARD Peace in the Balkans     RESOURCES Yugoslavia election information

Contradicting what opposition and some Western governments called overwhelming evidence of Kostunica's absolute majority, the electoral commission described the outcome as inconclusive and voted 10-3 to hold a second round.

"Based on the final results from 10,673 polling stations... presidential candidate Vojislav Kostunica won 2,474,392 votes, or 48.96 percent, and Slobodan Milosevic 1,951,761 votes, or 38.62 percent," the commission said in a statement.

But the results differ from preliminary figures which showed Milosevic with 40.25 percent and Kostunica with 48.22 percent.

Milosevic supporters, who control the commission, sought to explain the difference on Thursday by saying the number of registered voters had been clarified.

But Sinisa Nikolic, from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), said the opposition had been prevented from inspecting election material.

Asked about the commission's decision, Zoran Djindjic, one of the DOS leaders and manager of Kostunica's election campaign, said Milosevic could no longer treat his people like fools.

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