Serbs set to oust Milosevic party

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

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Voting is under way in Serbia in elections for a new parliament and government.

All opinion polls indicate the pro-democracy alliance will sweep away the remnants of the regime of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

The 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.

Six and a half million people can vote from seven in the morning till eight at night (0600-1900 GMT), with the first projected results due during the night.

REFERENCE Serbia Decides: Parliamentary Elections   •  Overview   •  What's at stake   •  Kostunica profile   •  Djindjic profile   •  Djindjic interview   •  Story archive   •  Message board   •  In-depth: Yugoslavia in Transition   •  Kosovo: Prospects for Peace   •  Audio file: Djindjic     Start the serious work Make courts independent

In Kosovo, in U.N. hands since 1999 when NATO bombing drove out Yugoslav forces, Serb officials aim to organise polling stations for some of the 100,000 beleaguered Serbs there.

DOS is confident enough to have sketched out a new cabinet, with vocal opposition leader Zoran Djindjic as prime minister.

In an interview with CNN, Reformist candidate Zoran Djindjic said the first priority of his government would be to reform the interior and justice ministries currently filled with Milosevic loyalists, and to fight corruption.

Djindjic said: "We need laws, we need the rule of law in Serbia and that is our priority. And to make the institutions stronger we must fight against corruption in these institutions.

"It will be the most dangerous part of this programme to fight against special interests, against Mafia groups connected to politicians."

Djindjic told CNN's Belgrade bureau chief Alessio Vinci that Milosevic, who still heads the Yugoslav Socialist Party, is among those politicians.

Vinci said Milosevic, who is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal, is more likely to face trial in Serbia over charges of election manipulation, embezzlement, and tax evasion.

After the elections, it is likely Milosevic will no longer be able to count on allies within the police and justice departments, he added.

Vinci added: "But Milosevic himself is not the biggest issue facing a new administration... If the democratic forces win the elections, they will also have to deal with some of the old problems Milosevic had.

"Among them -- ethnic Albanian separatists in southern Serbia who want the Presevo Valley, mainly populated by Albanians, to be reunited with Kosovo."

He said the future status of Kosovo itself also remains open, and another problem is Serbia's relations with Montenegro, which wants independence

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 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.

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 polls have shown.

Organisers of Saturday's elections, which will be observed by hundreds of international 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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