Serbia Regime Admits Election Loss in Second-Largest City

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — The embattled government of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic retreated Wednesday and for the first time admitted losing elections in the country’s second-largest city.

Milosevic’s Socialist regime, in an announcement broadcast on state television, said the opposition coalition Zajedno (Together) did win Nov. 17 municipal elections in the southern city of Nis.

Milosevic annulled the elections in Nis, Belgrade and 13 other municipalities where the opposition won, triggering an unprecedented wave of street demonstrations that on Wednesday marked their 52nd day.

But Zajedno leaders said the concession from Milosevic was insufficient and that the demonstrations will continue.

Nis, traditionally a Socialist Party stronghold, had been the site of the most egregious election-day fraud. Mile Ilic, the local Socialist chieftain, was fired by Milosevic in the early days of the protests. Local courts previously tried to break from Milosevic and award the victories to the opposition, but they failed to make it stick.

State television said a Justice Ministry inquiry, ordered by Milosevic after he received a delegation of Nis students, concluded that Zajedno won 37 seats on the Nis City Council, compared with 32 for the ruling Socialists.

Milosevic has steadfastly refused to relent in the face of the demonstrations, making token concessions occasionally to deflect international and domestic pressure.

In conceding Nis, Milosevic appeared to be responding to a new factor, mounting pressure from within his own party, which is said to be in disarray over the political crisis gripping Serbia, diplomats said. “The pressure on Milosevic probably has now broadened from the people on the streets to people in his own party,” a Western diplomat said.

Some members of Milosevic’s ruling leftist coalition have urged him to respect election results rather than risk deepening international isolation and economic stagnation.

Opposition leaders said Nis alone is not enough: They want Belgrade.

“We will not be satisfied and we shall continue our protests until all the Nov. 17 election results are recognized and until the media and judiciary are freed completely in Serbia,” opposition leader Zoran Djindjic told reporters.

Djindjic also said the government’s concession recognized fewer seats for the opposition than were actually won, which would reduce Zajedno’s margin in such a way as to enable the Socialists to block opposition decisions on the Nis City Council.

In that sense, Milosevic makes a concession without really conceding anything, Djindjic said.

There has been speculation that Milosevic would relinquish Nis as a trade-off in which he kept Belgrade--the capital of Serbia and the rump Yugoslavia, which also includes tiny Montenegro.

Yet Belgrade is the real prize in the disputed municipal elections, and opposition leaders have said they will settle for nothing less. In addition to the political platform that control of the city provides, there are lucrative licenses and fees to collect, as well as access to records involving a vast array of often-corrupt businesses run by Milosevic cronies.

Out in the streets of Belgrade, police Wednesday blocked demonstrators who attempted to drive in caravans as a way to circumvent a ban on street rallies.

Times special correspondent Laura Silber contributed to this report.