Communist win seen in Serbian elections

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia Serbia's communist president, SlobodanMilosevic, and his ruling party Monday appeared headed toward winningelections in Yugoslavia's biggest republic, a result that could pushthe deeply divided country closer to disintegration.

Milosevic won two-thirds of the vote in early returns fromSunday's election in Serbia's presidential race, and the communists,now called Socialists, appeared on the way to victory in more thanhalf of the 250 seats in the regional parliament. Communists alsowon a huge share of votes in the tiny republic of Montenegro, which,like Serbia, held its first free elections since World War II onSunday. Early returns showed the communists won up to 80 percent ofthe vote in some towns.

Serbia and Montenegro appear likely to buck the trend in therest of Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia, where communism has crumbledin the last year. The other four Yugoslav republics ditchedcommunism in elections this year.

"At the moment it looks like a catastrophe. It's clearly alandslide win for Milosevic in the presidential election," said aspokesman for the moderate opposition Democratic Party.

Gloom hung over the opposition headquarters in Belgrade. Themain opposition presidential candidate, Vuk Draskovic, was said to bein a "state of shock" as results showed him winning only about afifth of the votes.

Final unofficial results were expected today, although races inwhich no candidate won more than half the votes will be decided in asecond-round ballot Dec. 23.

Serbia spans a third of Yugoslavia and contains about 9.7million of the multi-ethnic federation's 23.5 million people. It hasbeen the slowest of the six republics to make democratic changes ascommunist domination gradually subsided in Yugoslavia after the deathin 1980 of Marshal Josip Broz Tito.

Foreign observers said the election was clean, although theopposition complained of scores of irregularities.

Diplomats said a communist win in Serbia could make it hard forthe republics to stage talks on how to hold Yugoslavia together.