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Yugoslav Electoral Commission Calls for Smooth Run-off Voting
The Federal Electoral Commission Wednesday called for a stable social order and a prevention of violence to pave way for a smooth run-off elections scheduled for Sunday, reported the state news agency Tanjug.
The last stage of the presidential election is very complicated and the two presidential candidates and their supporting political parties should make greater efforts to ensure that the run-off elections are carried out in a legal and democratic way, the commission said.
The two candidates are the incumbent President Slobodan Milosevic and Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS).
The Electoral Commission met Wednesday to review preparations for the run-off voting and said preparations were almost done and work would start Wednesday to issue ballots to voters.
In the September 24 elections neither Milosevic nor Kostunica achieved an outright victory and a second round is needed.
But the opposition claimed that Kostunica won in the first round and accused the ruling party of rigging the voting. He threatened to boycott the second round voting.
The opposition party called for a general strike across Serbia from Monday until Milosevic accepts Kostunica's victory. Thousands of coal miners and taxi drivers have taken part in strikes in some key cities of Serbia. Opposition supporters even blocked the main streets in Belgrade.
About 4,500 miners have been on strike at Kolubara mine, Serbia's largest coal mine, since Friday and about 6,500 workers at the Kostolac mine, which supplies coal to the second largest thermal plant in the country, began a strike Monday, keeping the production at a technically minimum 20 percent.
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