According to Jovanovic, the DOS has established that Kostunica has received 52.54 percent of votes, Milosevic 35.01 percent, Tomislav Nikolic 6 percent, Vojislav Mihailovic 2.99 percent, and Miodrag Vidojkovic 0.93 percent. There were 118,902 invalid ballots, or 2.35 percent.
"If there is no substitution of the ballots cast by soldiers, policemen, all those who voted by letter, and if no new ballots appear from Kosovo and Metohija, Kostunica would have about 2,649,000, and Milosevic at most 1,765,000," said Jovanovic.
Speaking about the preliminary results published by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), he stated that "those results are based on only 67 percent of processed election materials" and expressed the expectation that "the FEC will correctly process the remaining ballots," and "confirm Kostunica's victory in the first round." At the same time Jovanovic showed a report of the election headquarters of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) after processing of 75 percent of election material which confirmed Kostunica's victory with 54.80 vs. 38 percent of votes.
Jovanovic repeated that for the DOS there will be no second round. Speaking about the irregularities in the work of the FEC, Jovanovic stated that two permanent members were "eliminated" from the Commission because they "do not enjoy full trust of those who had formed the FEC" and that the representative of the SRS was chased out.
According to Jovanovic "Milosevic does not enjoy the support of the Army and Police, but only of the Minister of Police, the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defense." He backed that up by the assertion that the counting of the ballots cast by soldiers was interrupted once it became clear that they voted by the ratio of 9 to 1 for Kostunica and the DOS.
"If the SPO and the SRS can do something on the Serbian republic level to speed up the process of changes, let them do that. We shall not prevent them in that," Jovanovic responded to the question about the likelihood of a coalition of these two parties in the Serbian parliament.
"Slobodan Milosevic now has to deal with the citizens, not with us. We have fulfilled our obligation by forming a united coalition, and the citizens by voting in the elections," Jovanovic averred.
To the question whether the DOS will invite the citizens to vote in the second round if the FEC sticks to the current result, he responded that "the DOS will not call for a boycott of something that does not exist," and that the citizens will be shown the evidence backing up the DOS claims about the election results.
The unofficial winner of the elections for the president of Yugoslavia, Dr. Vojislav Kostunica, according to the same diplomatic sources, has rejected these days to hold official meetings with the representatives of foreign embassies in Belgrade. The ruling Socialist party of Serbia (SPS) has also tried to establish an indirect contact with Dr. Kostunica in order to cut a deal for the second round of elections. From well informed sources close to the election headquarters of the Socialists we have learned that the opposition rejected this contact stating that in September 24 Kostunica had won more than 50 percent of votes and there would be no bargaining. The leaders of the DOS are convinced that exactly Russia may play a crucial role in Milosevic's peaceful transfer of power to the new president.
"We shall defend the will of the people. Today at 2pm there will be a rally at Republic Square where we shall announce concrete means of struggle against Slobodan Milosevic in defense of Vojislav's Kostunica's victory," announced Cedomir Jovanovic, the head of the DOS Central Election Headquarters after last night's meeting of the DOS leaders.
Zoran Djindjic, the leader of the Democratic Party (DS) and the manager of the DOS election campaign announced that the means of resistance will include civic disobedience and a general strike "that will halt everything in Serbia".
After the meeting, party leaders headed towards Terazije Square where about 2,000 citizens had gathered spontaneously to protest against this afternoon's statement of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) regarding the final results of the federal elections for the president and the federal parliament. Tonight the Police blocked traffic between Kolarceva St. and Republic Square. Several police cars were parked in Terazije Sq. but the gathering passed without incidents.
The meeting of the DOS leaders was called after the deadline given to the FEC to respond to the request to compare its election results with those obtained by the DOS had expired.
The SPS and JUL are not mentioned at all any more except in the context of the election results, and those who were until September 24 almost absent from the local media now enjoy significant trust of the editors of these two media houses.
Since Wednesday these media are rebroadcasting the program of the Radio Free Europe, the act that would have led to an immediate dismissal only a week ago. By the way, none of the leaders of the local SPS and former local councilors has so far said anything regarding the election results in Krusevac, nor can they be seen in the town.
A new issue of the local weekly Pobeda is due to hit the kiosks today and it will be interesting to check the editorial policy of that magazine, knowing that this municipal publication was also until recently under control of the SPS. It will especially be interesting to read the editorial, usually written by the editor-in-chief of this magazine, Miroljub Nicovic.