Extremists win Serbia elections

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- Serbia's road to economic and political reform looked that much longer Sunday night, as ultranationalists appeared to have won the largest number of seats in parliamentary elections here.

Early results showed that the party of Vojislav Seselj, who is currently on trial for war crimes at the international criminal tribunal in The Hague, had won the largest number of seats in the 250- member assembly.

A sample of over 54 percent of votes cast, taken by the Center for Free Elections and Democracy, an independent polling organization, showed that Seselj's Radical Party had won 27.5 percent of votes cast. The Serbian Democratic Party, led by the former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, was some way behind with 17.4 percent.

Four parties placed candidates indicted by The Hague on their electoral lists, and two appear to have been elected, Seselj and the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Because they are in custody in The Hague, however, they will be unable to take office.

With too few seats to govern alone, the Radical Party would have to form a coalition in order to create a government. Commentators said this was highly unlikely because no other parties appeared willing to join with the ultranationalists. This leaves the opportunity for former members of the outgoing governing coalition to form a new administration.

Kostunica, whose party left the current government more than a year and half ago, was tipped as the favorite to lead a new administration, along with their electoral allies the pro-reformist party G17 Plus.

The Radical Party's strong performance reflects a trend across the region. Hard-line nationalists that led their countries during the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 have returned to power in Bosnia after elections in 2002, and most recently in Croatia.

The Parliament elected Sunday brings the end of a three-year coalition administration that came to power after the downfall of Milosevic. It had promised reforms similar to those seen throughout much of Eastern Europe after the fall of communism in 1989 -- including privatizations, legal reforms allowing greater foreign investments and the dismantling of old communist bureaucracies -- which in turn opened the way for many of those countries to join the European Union. But instead the Democratic Opposition of Serbia or DOS, as the coalition was called, failed to galvanize itself into an effective force for change, giving many voters the impression that valuable time has been squandered.

"If anything it was a miracle that the government lasted three years," said Braca Grubicic, the editor of the VIP Daily News Service, a political newsletter here, adding that the coalition was formed solely to oust Milosevic.

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