Serbs Vote in Key Parliamentary Election

Serbs voted Sunday in parliamentary elections closely watched by European Union leaders hoping the troubled Balkan nation will keep pursuing Western-style reforms and a peaceful solution to the dispute over Kosovo.


The vote was the first since Serbia became independent last year with the end to its union with Montenegro, its last partner from the former Yugoslav federation. Soon after the vote, a U.N. plan for the future of Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province is expected to be proposed.


More than 6.6 million voters were choosing among 20 political parties, ranging from ultranationalists and conservatives to pro-Western reformists and liberals. Parties must get a minimum 5 percent of the total vote to earn a place in the 250-member parliament.


Nearly 57 percent of registered voters had cast ballots one hour before polls closed, said CeSID, an independent Serbian polling group, indicating a strong interest among the electorate.


Challenges facing the next parliament and government include Western demands for the arrest of war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic and the dispute over Kosovo, where a predominantly ethnic Albanian population seeks independence over the strong opposition of most Serbs.


Opinion polls indicated the vote would be a close race between the nationalist Serbian Radical Party, loyal to late ex-leader Slobodan Milosevic, and the Western-backed Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic.


But neither of the two groups was expected to win an outright majority, forcing them to partner with smaller parties to form a governing coalition.


Ranking third in recent polls was the center-right Popular Coalition, led by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. In campaigning, he navigated a central course, advocating EU integration but refusing to denounce Milosevic-era parties. He has pursued Western-advised reforms but failed to arrest Mladic.


Tadic has pledged that a government led by his Democrats would work harder to arrest the fugitive.


The elections came a day before talks between EU foreign ministers in Brussels where Kosovo was to top the agenda. The 27-nation bloc will look closely at elections' results, hoping that pro-Western parties will win and push ahead with democratic and economic reforms and fully cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.


German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other EU officials said last week that stability in the Balkans was a priority, including working closely with Belgrade to find a peaceful solution to Kosovo's status.


On Friday, U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari is expected to present a proposal that will include some sort of conditional independence for the province, which has been an international protectorate since the 1998-99 war between Milosevic's troops and separatist ethnic Albanians.


Tadic and Kostunica have lobbied internationally to keep Kosovo within Serbia, offering broad autonomy to its ethnic Albanians. The two have pledged to resolve the Kosovo crisis peacefully, a promise the Radicals have refused to make.


``We will win and make sure that Kosovo remains part of Serbia,'' Serbian Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic said Sunday.