Sunday Morning News

Yugoslavia Holds Presidential and Parliamentary Elections; Pro- Western Montenegro Plans to Boycott

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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with elections in one of the world's most volatile regions, Yugoslavia. Voters are casting ballots for a president and parliament and today's balloting is the biggest challenge to the 13 year rule of President Slobodan Milosevic. The race is tight and the prospects for cheating are high.

CNN's Belgrade bureau chief Alessio Vinci joins us now live with the latest -- Alessio.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN BELGRADE BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Kyra.

Seven point eight million voters officially registered to vote today in Yugoslavia. However, because of the boycott of Montenegro and the Kosovo Albanians, that number down to about six million. The winning candidate must receive at least more than 50 percent of the vote. That is about 2.5, 2.6 million votes if you count invalid ballots and some of the abstentions. However, opinion polls here indicate that neither of the leading candidate, presidential hopeful Mr. Kastunitza (ph), the Belgrade and Yugoslav official, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic having mustered enough support. So there is a possibility that on October the 8th there will be a runoff between these two people.

However, Yugoslav officials here insist that Mr. Milosevic will be able to win easy in the first round, Mr. Virstunza (ph) saying that this is absolutely impossible.

Mr. Milosevic arrived around 10:00 A.M. local time here at the polling station. He was accompanied by his wife, Mira Markovitz (ph). She is running in the federal parliament for a seat in the federal parliament, the presidential couple waiting in line like everybody else, waiting for their turn to vote, and as they both approached the voting booth, Mr. Milosevic showing a gesture of calvarate (ph) over his wife, letting her vote first. But she had forgotten her pen so Mr. Milosevic had to help her out in order to cast her ballot.

Two hours later, at a different polling station the presidential hopeful Mr. Kastunitza, who has led most opinion polls here in Yugoslavia in recent weeks, showing in front of a store with reporters and cameras, showing the ballots to these reporters, he, Mr. Kastunitza, talking to the reporters afterwards, telling that this is an election like any other election in Yugoslavia. It is an election for change. And like any other previous election, he said, change will be difficult because the authorities here are, do not want to give up power.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Alessio Vinci, thank you.

And Montenegro is a small Yugoslav republic and its pro-Western government is boycotting the elections. Montenegro is also hinting it may seek independence if Milosevic wins.

CNN's Nic Robertson joins us live from Yugoslavia. Hi, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, well, we're about half way through the voting day here and the opposition party fighting against President Slobodan Milosevic say a little over 10 percent of voters have turned up at the polls so far. About one third of the voters in Montenegro expected to show up by day's end. The reason for that, the government of Montenegro is a pro-Western, independence- minded government led by President Milo Djukanovic, has called the elections and the constitutional changes leading up to the elections illegal. They diminish the power of Montenegro within the Yugoslav Federation and for that reason he has urged everyone in the country not to boycott.

Here in Montenegro, some of the polling has gone on at schools, at homes, houses. People have hastily converted them, and also businesses. That's because the boycott has also hit the normal voting institutions. Much of the support here, much of the, many of the voters that will turn out here will likely be President Milosevic's supporters, one of his key allies here the federal prime minister, the Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic voted earlier today. He said he is confident that President Milosevic will win, that enough votes are being turned out in Montenegro to make a difference.

But at day's end it has to be remembered that the Montenegrin vote is 1/20th of that of the size of that in Serbia. So it will contribute very little when you add in that only one third of that 1/20th will actually vote it will contribute very little at the day's end to the overall vote in Serbia -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Nic Robertson live in Yugoslavia, thank you.

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