The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro
A nationalist supporter of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic took the lead in Serbia's presidential election Sunday, but faced a runoff with a pro-Western party leader, according to unofficial preliminary results.
Tomislav Nikolic of the Serbian Radical Party had 30.7 percent of the vote, while Boris Tadic of the reformist Democratic Party took 27.4 percent, according to the early count by the Center for Free Elections and Democracy, or CESID.
The non-government group's preliminary counts have proven reliable in the past and initial results from the candidates' campaign headquarters showed similar outcomes.
Official results were expected late Sunday or early Monday.
None of the candidates was expected to win more than 50 percent of votes, leaving the top two contenders to compete in a runoff in two weeks.
The Sunday balloting is Serbia's fourth attempt to elect the head of state since 2002. Previous elections failed because less than half those eligible cast ballots. That requirement has been dropped. Sunday's turnout was estimated at around 45 percent.
A Nikolic victory would push Serbia into renewed isolation and block U.S. and other Western financial and political support for the impoverished republic.
He has promised to block further extradition of the Serbs to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which is trying Milosevic and Nikolic's boss, Vojislav Seselj. Cooperation with The Hague court is the key condition for future U.S. aid for Serbia.
"The voters are choosing whether their country will be isolated or open toward Europe," Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus declared as he cast his ballot in a downtown Belgrade school.
Millionaire Bogoljub Karic, a supporter of the ruling coalition, was running third with 18.7 percent of the votes, ahead of the candidate of the ruling coalition, Dragan Marsicanin who garnered only 13.2 percent. The remaining 11 candidates trailed far behind, according to CESID.
Nikolic, who voted at a municipal building in Belgrade, said he expected an outright victory and predicted a political crisis and early parliamentary elections afterward.
"We did all we could to make sure that I win in the first round," he said.
The soft-spoken Tadic has insisted he is the best choice if Serbia to join the European Union, and said Sunday the vote was "extremely important for the future of this country."
The Democrats have spearheaded economic and political reforms since Milosevic's ouster in 2000, but they lost parliamentary elections to conservative groups months after their leader, former prime minister Zoran Djindjic, was assassinated in March 2003.
Vuk Draskovic, a leader of the ruling conservative coalition, said he expected Serbs "to vote for the road ahead to Europe not back to the past and isolation."
"A possible victory by Tomislav Nikolic would be dangerous for Serbia," he said.
The candidate of the current government, former parliamentary speaker Marsicanin, has said that his election would grant political stability.
Karic - whose lucrative businesses include a mobile telephone network, a bank, a large construction company and a television station - told the voters that his wealth was proof he can make Serbia rich.
All the candidates have vowed to improve Serbia's economy marked by high unemployment and average monthly salaries of $300.
By MISHA SAVIC Associated Press Writer
