'No second round' - Kostunica

'We have won' - Vojislav Kostunica

Vojislav Kostunica told Wednesday night's Serbian opposition rally in Belgrade that there would be no second round of polls in Yugoslavia.

Here are excerpts from his speech, broadcast by Radio B2-92.

Dear courageous compatriots, freed people. We have won. We won despite the terror of Slobodan Milosevic.

We won despite the sanctions which were imposed on us for years. We won despite the Nato bombs dropped on this country last year.

We won despite some democrats in Serbia and Montenegro who turned their backs to us...

No second round

We all expressed our opinion on the kind of Serbia we want to live in. Not only did we give our opinion on it, but we also showed it by the number of votes in the election.

They have less than 24 hours to announce the real results

Vojislav Kostunica

This is a great victory for Serbia. They dared once again to play games with the will of the majority of the people.

They tried once again to steal votes, they tried to bargain over the second election round. Our message is: there will be no second round.

No bargaining

There will be no haggling. There will be no haggling with them. Why? We are fighting for democracy. Democracy is founded on truth, not lies. The truth is that we won these elections and that they lost the elections. [crowd applauds]

If we haggled and negotiated with them, it would mean that we recognize lies instead of the truth. Democracy is founded on the truth. Democracy is also based on the will of the people, on the will of the majority, not on the will of one man.

That is why there will be no haggling with them. If we agreed to haggle, we would admit that the will of one man, Slobodan Milosevic, is stronger than the will of the whole people...

International support

We are strong at this moment because finally we have the support of the world.

We have the support of the European Union, we have the support of Russia. That support is important, but not crucial. What is crucial is the strength we demonstrated in these elections.[applause]

What is crucial is our strength, our will, our determination finally to put a stop to whims of one man who has got it into his head that he is untouchable [boos].

There will no longer be untouchable individuals in this country. Only democracy and our will shall be untouchable, and untouchable will be the rule of law instead of the rule of individuals...

Army should only defend state

My message to the army and the police is: We are one. The army and the police are here, as a part of the people, to defend the state and not to defend one man and his familiy. [Loud cheers]

The army and the police behaved like this before and they will behave like this in the future.

Why should the army, which honourably fought against Nato last year, be undermined by one man? Why should it shake from fear in front of him? Why should it be a puppet in the hands of one despot? Because Slobodan Milosevic is that: a despot without power... [Loud boos]

24 hours to announce 'real results'

Dear friends, [shouts of "He is finished"] we should have met in front of the federal assembly, our assembly! They prevented this and they dismantled this stage because the Federal Election Commission is working there... [Loud boos]

24 September is the day of our liberation

Vojislav Kostunica

The very same Federal Election Commission which did this a few years ago and then had to recognize the real election results.

But this time around they will not need 88 days to admit the truth. They have less than 24 hours to announce the real results.

We shall do everything, but I repeat once again, not by using violence like they do, so that the truth can out.

We shall fight for every single vote. We shall fight to protect this state and we shall do everything so that, after Milosevic's crimes and last year's Nato bombing, not another drop of blood is shed and not another stone is thrown. [Applause]

We have the strength to do this. We shall preserve the state and ourselves. We are strong. We are strong because we have liberated ourselves and 24 September is the day of our liberation, the liberation of our beautiful Serbia and Yugoslavia... [Cheers]

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.