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Reformers Celebrate Victory In Serbia's Parliamentary Vote
by Alexandra Niksic
BELGRADE (AFP) - Reformers backing Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica celebrated early Sunday after announcing a landslide victory that hands them a strong mandate to rebuild the shattered country.
The unofficial results, based on final counts from almost two-thirds of polling booths, marked the end of an era for the Socialist party of ousted autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, although it insisted it was still the largest single party in the Serbian assembly.
Kostunica's 18-party alliance, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), said the results would give them 176 out of 250 seats in Serbia's powerful parliament, with 64% of the vote.
"It's time for a celebration," said DOS leader Cedomir Jovanovic, as fellow DOS head Zoran Djindjic cracked open a bottle of champagne.
"This will be a government which fights for the people and not for itself, and the people will soon see the improvement," said Djindjic, who is set to become Serbia's prime minister.
"The most important thing is to form this government and put it to work as soon as possible, not to waste time. This will be the first difference in regard to the previous government. Our government will be transparent, incorrupt and honest," he vowed.
Milosevic's Socialist Party (SPS) will win 37 seats, the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radicals (SRS) 23 and the Serbian Unity Party (SSJ) of slain paramilitary warlord Arkan a surprise 14, the results showed.
Independent monitors from the Center for Free Elections and Democratization (CESID) released almost identical results, giving the DOS 177 seats, the SPS 35, the Radicals 23 and the SSJ 15.
Most DOS leaders were at the Belgrade city hall festivities, although Kostunica himself was absent.
The Yugoslav president said in an address broadcast by state television that the vote would allow the DOS to complete the democratic transformation set in motion when it knocked Milosevic out of office exactly three months ago.
Loyalists of Milosevic - indicted for war crimes by a U.N. court - had clung to powerful posts in Serbia, by far the larger partner of tiny Montenegro in federal Yugoslavia.
Saturday's vote was seen as a key move in flushing out the last remnants of the old regime, which oversaw more than a decade of isolation, disintegration and conflict.
"In the coming days, we will have a government which will be able to build up the state, democratic institutions, and a socially oriented market economy," Kostunica said.
The new administration will also "declare war on corruption and deal with all the inherited problems, such as Kosovo and relations with Montenegro," he added.
He said he was "convinced the [new] assembly will bring a government which will be able to deal with all the problems that are before us."
"This is an unstoppable campaign towards democracy. The key element of this vote is a strategic change in the political system in Serbia," said political analyst Vladimir Goati.
"The DOS has won a convincing two-thirds majority and 20% more votes than in September," Goati said.
The Socialists were in "unstoppable decline" and had lost another 20% of the votes since September, he added.
The results showed unexpected gains for the SSJ of the late Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as indicted warlord Arkan.
Djindjic described SSJ gains as a reaction to an uprising by ethnic Albanian separatists in southern Serbia who are calling for the predominantly Albanian area to be grafted on to breakaway Kosovo, currently run by the U.N.
He added that the international community bore some of the blame for its "too mild reaction" to the crisis.
SSJ party chief Borislav Pelevic - who is also chairman of the Yugoslav kickboxing federation - said his party shared an "almost identical agenda" to Kostunica's.
"I hope that Kostunica will come to his senses and realize that he has no faithful allies in the DOS," he said.
"I hope that his party ... will realize that it has no relevant partners in the DOS coalition and will do everything to free Serbia and protect it from further splits."
Voter turnout at the Saturday polls was estimated at 58%, CESID said.
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