First-Round Vote in Serbian Presidential Race

Voters in Serbia went to the polls on Sunday to vote for a new president in the first national election since they threw out Slobodan Milosevic's administration nearly two years ago.

Yugoslavian President Vojislav Kostunica led the polls, and observers said that Kostunica and Deputy Prime Minister Mirolijub Labus would likely qualify for a run-off election on October 13. Polls were to close at 8 p.m. and projected results were expected late Sunday night.

Milosevic, meanwhile, entered the second phase of his war crimes trial at the Hague. In opening statements on Thursday, U.N. prosecutors promised to connect the former Yugoslav leader to the genocide of thousands of Bosnians and Croats during the early 1990s.

Serbia's election campaign focused on the aftermath of war, specifically on the candidates' opposing ideas about the right pace of change.

Kostunica is critical of the Serbian government's liberal economic reforms and has pledged to establish democratic rule of law and to oversee the writing of a new constitution. Kostunica wants Serbia to be further decentralized and envisions the establishment of six regional authorities.

Labus, by contrast, has worked to create the current government's economic policy and he says the reforms are necessary to overhaul the hard-hit ecnomy. He stands for further reforms and speedy integration into the European Union - by 2010, if Labus has his way.

Kostunica voted in downtown Belgrade. "I'm not supposed to make forecasts," he told Reuters. "But it would be rational if it would all end in a single round of elections. But then, we are not among the most rational of nations…"

Labus told Reuters: "I'm very optimistic and I'm sure the Serbian voters will make the right choice. That means to continue economic reforms that everybody would benefit from and to continue rapid accession to the European Union."

The winner will set the course of reforms after the Yugoslav federation comes to an end later this year and its two remaining constituent republics, Serbia and Montenegro, move to establish a looser union.

Serbia's current president, Milan Milutinovic, is a remnant of the Milosevic era and is expected to be called before the U.N. war crimes court on charges related to atrocities in Kosovo.