Reformers set for victory in Serbia

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The opposition in Serbia appears set to win an overwhelming majority in this Saturday's parliamentary elections.

Opinion polls show candidates of the 18-party Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), which backs Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, are likely to win a solid majority in the Serbian Assembly.

Former President Slobodan Milosevic still heads the Yugoslav Socialist Party, which is expected to win no more than 20 percent of the vote.

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The election should give Serbia its first government for more than 50 years not led by Socialists or their communist predecessors.

The win would oust the Socialists from Serbia's government, the most important power centre in Yugoslavia, thus completing a process begun with federal elections and a mass uprising a few months ago.

After a decade of Balkan wars under Milosevic, the vote is also expected to point Serbia towards reforms chosen by other central and east European states after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Kostunica's backers gained limited powers in the Yugoslav federation, now composed of just Serbia and much smaller Montenegro, following elections in September and mass protests on October 5.

"We have two transitional periods -- one was between October 5 and the Serbian elections and the second will start after the Serbian elections," Zoran Djindjic, set to be the new prime minister, said.

"We will accelerate this process."

The Democratic Opposition of Serbia is expected to get between 60 and 80 percent of the vote, compared to the Socialists' 10 to 20 percent, recent surveys have shown.

Zoran Djindjic plans reforms, including the creation of a market economy

Djindjic, 48-year-old leader of Serbia's Democratic Party, has pledged to crack down on corruption, establish the rule of law, create a true market economy, start new social benefit programmes and decentralise the state.

Djindjic says he expects Serb courts to prosecute Milosevic for abuses of power but he and many other leading reformers are reluctant to hand him over to a foreign court, arguing he should be tried first for crimes against his own people.

Organisers of Saturday's elections, which will be observed by hundreds of foreign monitors and more than 10,000 local people, have taken steps to avoid allegations of vote-fixing that were widespread during Milosevic's rule.

They have cut out absentee voting and plan to use transparent ballot boxes and an invisible security spray on voters' fingers to check if they have voted before. Each voter also has to sign a register.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Socialist Party of Serbia
Democratic Party
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbia Information

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