Milosevic Is Upbeat About Yugoslavia Vote

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia —  Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s leftist coalition predicted victory Sunday as Serb-led Yugoslavia held its first elections since Milosevic abandoned his wartime goals in Bosnia.

Just hours after the polls closed, Socialist Party spokesman Ivica Davic proclaimed an “overwhelming victory” over the opposition coalition, although official results were not expected until today.

Milosevic earlier was upbeat about his coalition’s chances of winning the election despite Yugoslavia’s economic woes and international isolation.

“These elections are very important for the future of our country . . . for the stability of the whole region,” said Milosevic, who, until endorsing the peace process in Dayton, Ohio, last year, was widely seen as responsible for encouraging the Serbian rebellion in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Voter turnout was 64% in Serbia and Montenegro, which constitute the rump Yugoslavia, in contests for the joint federal parliament, municipalities and Montenegro’s republic legislature.

Milosevic’s Socialist Party, formerly the Communist Party, and its sister party in Montenegro held a majority in the 138-seat Chamber of Citizens going into the election.

A small number of foreign observers was dispatched to monitor the approximately 10,000 polling stations. The four-party opposition coalition--called Together--said there were not enough observers to prevent possible fraud.

In the last week of the campaign, Television Serbia reverberated with promises by Milosevic’s coalition to create peace and prosperity.

Those pledges contrasted with the grim realities of life in Yugoslavia.

After five years of footing the bill for wars in Bosnia and Croatia and about four years under United Nations sanctions, the country has seen the average monthly salary plunge to the equivalent of $100, and half the population is out of work, according to independent economists and Western diplomats.