Kostunica allies set for new victory

Djindjic and Kostunica: An end to the Milosevic era

As Serbia prepares for Saturday's parliamentary elections, opinion polls are predicting a landslide victory for President Vojislav Kostunica's allies.

With campaigns officially closed, the latest surveys suggest candidates of the 18-party Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) could obtain an overwhelming majority of the 250 seats.

Slobodan Milosevic: Forced to go after losing federal elections

If the forecasts are confirmed, it would be the first time in 50 years that Serbia is not led by Socialists or their communist predecessors.

The election could see the final removal from power of former President Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party, which is not expected to obtain more than 20% of the vote.

The parliamentary poll comes two months after Mr Milosevic was ousted after refusing to concede defeat in Yugoslavia's federal elections.

A poll undertaken by the independent, Belgrade-based Center for Political Research and Public Opinion, had 71% supporting Mr Kostunica's side The Socialists of Mr Milosevic were supported by 13% of respondents.

Milosevic to be 'cleansed'

A random sample of 1,532 voting-age Serbians were asked. Other political factions trailed well below 10%. The margin of error was at 3%.

Another poll, by the Center for Alternative Studies, had Mr Kostunica's coalition winning 79% of the votes and the Socialists only 7% from a sample of 1,637 Serbs.

The BBC's central European reporter, Nick Thorpe, says the real power in this country rests with the Serbian Government, not with the Government of the Yugoslav Federation - making this election more important in some ways than the vote in September.

Zoran Djindjic, who is slated to become Serbia's prime minister, has said a DOS government will purge the country's institutions of Milosevic allies.

"We want to cleanse the remnants of the former Milosevic regime, and we will have the means to do so after the elections," said Mr Djindjic.

Border zone move

Correspondents say a DOS win could further accelerate Yugoslavia's re-integration into the international community.

Since Mr Milosevic's defeat in the federal elections, Yugoslavia has been readmitted to several international bodies, including the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the International Monetary Fund.

On Thursday Nato said it could allow Yugoslav troops to enter a demilitarised border zone in southern Serbia, where ethnic-Albanian guerrillas from Kosovo have taken control of a number of villages.

The head of Nato-led peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, General Carlo Cabigiosu, said ways of restoring the principle of sovereignty to Serbia's southern region were being looked at.