Democrat leads race as Serbia votes

Serbian voters go to the polls today for the third time in just over a year, amid hopes that a democratically elected President will at last emerge to clear away the legacy of the country's former strongman, Slobodan Milosevic.

The Serbian presidency has been vacant since Milan Milutinovic, a close Milosevic associate, ended his term last year and surrendered to the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, where his former master is on trial. Previous attempts to elect a successor have foundered on a Milosevic-era law, which demands a 50 per cent voter turnout for the result to be valid.

Although some 6.5 million voters have a choice of six candidates today, another stalemate is distinctly possible. Analysts blamed public apathy for the failure of the elections last year, and the situation is not much different today.

Many Serbs say they have seen little change in the three years since Mr Milosevic fell from power. Their high hopes for quick economic improvement have been dashed - the government that stepped into Mr Milosevic's shoes inherited an economy devastated by years of wars, isolation and the Nato bombing campaign in 1999. The slow transition to a market economy caused a sharp rise in unemployment, and the privatisation process was accompanied by numerous scandals.

The assassination of Serbia's pragmatic Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic, in March showed that organised crime has not been eliminated. Nor has the cronyism that thrived under the Milosevic regime. In the wake of Mr Djindjic's death political reform virtually came to a halt, with parties close to Mr Milosevic's regime, accompanied by moderate yet anti-reform Serb nationalists, gaining ground. They put the blame for the hardships of everyday life on Mr Djindjic's lacklustre successors.

Criticism of co-operation with The Hague has become louder. Last month's demand by the tribunal for Serbia to hand over four former top police and army officers infuriated nationalists, with pro-Milosevic forces saying the government would be guilty of treason if it agreed to extradite the wanted men.

Today's election pits Dragoljub Micunovic, 73, a veteran politician with strong democratic credentials, who is well ahead in opinion polls, against Tomislav Nikolic, 51, of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party. Mr Micunovic founded the Democratic Party in 1990, when the multiparty system was introduced in the country for the first time since the Second World War. Among the figures around him were Mr Djindjic, then a young philosophy professor, and a legal researcher, Vojislav Kostunica, who won the Yugoslav presidential election against Mr Milosevic in 2000, a victory that was masterminded by Mr Djindjic.