Serbia holds general elections

PanARMENIAN.Net - Serbians began voting on Sunday, May 6 after a campaign dominated by economic issues in elections that see pro-European President Boris Tadic up against conservative populist Tomislav Nikolic, AFP reports.

Opinion polls have put Tadic and Nikolic neck-and-neck in the presidential race, with their parties also running close in the parliamentary elections.

For more than 6.7 million eligible voters, it is the first election in decades to focus on economic issues rather than the conflicts that left Belgrade internationally isolated in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century.

Both camps support Serbia's EU membership bid while breakaway Kosovo, which overshadowed the last polls, has been pushed to the background by concerns about Serbia's stumbling economy and record unemployment.

The latest surveys showed Tadic's Democratic party (DS) and Nikolic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) were running close in the general elections for the 250-seat one-chamber parliament, with up to 30 percent of the votes each.

But neither camp was expected to win enough votes to form a government on its own and analysts believe that the Socialists, once led by late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, were set for a kingmaker role.

Tadic and Nikolic are the frontrunners among the 12 candidates for a five-year presidential mandate.

Surveys show Tadic and Nikolic would face each other in a second round, with analysts expecting the 54-year-old incumbent to triumph, as he has done twice before.

Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) and will close at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT). The first significant partial results are expected after 9:30 pm.