BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian President-elect Tomislav Nikolic, last in power when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, faced the challenge on Monday of proving he has swung behind the country’s pro-Western course, after a shock victory that rattled the region.

The election of Nikolic, a former ultranationalist ally of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic who says he now supports Serbia’s goal of joining the European Union, plunged the country into political uncertainty.

A dour former cemetery manager known by the nickname “Gravedigger”, Nikolic beat liberal Boris Tadic in a close-run vote in which less than half the electorate turned out, breaking the almost 12-year hold on power of the reformists who ousted Milosevic in 2000.

The result throws into doubt a deal on a ruling coalition headed by Tadic’s Democratic Party and will cause unease among Serbia’s neighbours, for whom rightist Nikolic is closely associated with the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia.

The EU, weighing up his professed conversion to the goal of accession, congratulated Nikolic on his victory and urged him to support the next Serbian government in pursuing talks on joining the bloc that could start next year.

“Serbia’s European perspective is very concrete and we therefore hope to be able to rely on President Nikolic’s personal dedication to achieve this aim,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Council President Herman Van Rompuy said in a joint statement.

Calling for “statesmanship”, they stressed the need to continue the process of reconciliation in the region after a decade of war in which more than 125,000 people died, and to improve relations with Kosovo, a former province of Serbia that is now an independent state.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – The election of rightist Tomislav Nikolic as president has plunged Serbia into a period of deep political uncertainty and unnerved a region that associates him with the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia.

Nikolic beat liberal Boris Tadic in a close-run vote in which less than half the electorate turned out, breaking an almost 12-year hold on power by the reformists who ousted Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

A former ultranationalist ally of Milosevic who says he now supports Serbia’s goal of joining the European Union, Nikolic’s victory throws into doubt a deal on a ruling coalition headed by Tadic’s Democratic Party.

It will also cause unease among Serbia’s ex-Yugoslav neighbours for whom Nikolic remains Milosevic’s ideological heir and an unapologetic nationalist. He was in government in 1999 when Serb forces expelled almost 1 million ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and NATO intervened with air strikes.

The European Union will take encouragement from his first remarks on winning: “Serbia will not stray from its European path.”

Contrary to dire warnings from some observers, the vote was “not a referendum for or against the EU,” he said, adding he would seek talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as Serbia’s “main ally in the EU.”

On Twitter, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote: “Serbia under Nikolic must create confidence in its will to move towards Europe and partnership in the region.”

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic, a former ultranationalist last in power when Serbia was bombed by NATO in 1999, declared victory in a presidential run-off on Sunday and pledged to keep the Balkan country moving towards the European Union.

Based on an unofficial projection, Nikolic narrowly beat liberal incumbent Boris Tadic, who quickly conceded defeat after eight years as president.

Addressing concern in the West and the region over his past as an ally of late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic, Nikolic said in his first comments that Serbia “will not stray from its European path.”

“This was not a referendum for or against the EU, but to resolve internal problems that were created by Tadic and the Democratic Party,” he said.

“We must start to work, to rid ourselves of crime, to solve the political oligarchy and seek friends the whole world over.”

Based on a sample count, pollster CESID put Nikolic ahead with 49.8 percent against Tadic on 47 percent after a run-off in which fewer than half of Serbia’s eligible voters turned out.

A Nikolic victory could potentially split power in the former Yugoslav republic, with Tadic’s Democratic Party poised to again lead the government in a coalition after a May 6 parliamentary election.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Pro-Western incumbent Boris Tadic and rightist Tomislav Nikolic went head to head on Sunday in a tense run-off election for Serbian president and the right to lead the struggling nation into talks on joining the European Union.

Despite economic stagnation and rising unemployment, Tadic is tipped to defeat Nikolic for the third time since 2004 as Serbia slowly sheds the legacy of a decade of war and isolation under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

A Tadic victory would keep power firmly in the hands of his Democratic Party.

But opposition allegations of fraud in parliamentary and first-round presidential elections two weeks ago could cause an upset, or cast a shadow over the result of the run-off if Nikolic carries out a threat to call supporters into the streets.

“After all the unfulfilled promises and corruption under Tadic, I believe Serbia needs to be refreshed and that’s why I voted for Nikolic,” voter Miodrag Petrovic, a 38-year-old marketing executive, said shortly after polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT).

Election authorities and foreign monitors found no evidence of the 500,000 votes Nikolic says were forged in the parliamentary and first-round presidential polls.

Nikolic’s Serbian Progressive Party says its monitors will confiscate ballot boxes and close polling stations if they observe irregularities.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic threatened on Friday to challenge the result of a presidential run-off on May 20, with reformist incumbent Boris Tadic ahead in a new opinion poll.

Accusations of fraud, lodged by the rightist opposition following presidential and parliamentary elections on May 6, threaten to mar the second-round presidential vote.

Nikolic, 60, said on Friday he was considering calling supporters into the streets ahead of the election. Tadic, president since 2004, expects to win another five years in power.

Nikolic’s Serbian Progressive Party narrowly won the parliamentary election, but faces being locked out of government by a renewed coalition of Tadic’s second-placed Democratic Party and the third-placed Socialists of late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The alliance has a patchy record of reform over the past four years but would likely keep the former Yugoslav republic edging towards the European Union.

Nikolic, a former ally of Milosevic who has tried to shed his ultranationalist image, accused the Democrats on Thursday of stuffing the voter register with the names of dead Serbs and stealing 500,000 votes.

His party filed a criminal complaint on Friday.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s main opposition party accused the dominant pro-Western Democratic Party on Thursday of stealing 500,000 votes in weekend elections and threatened to call supporters into the streets after an upcoming presidential run-off.

The opposition rightist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) narrowly won a parliamentary election on Sunday but faces being locked out of government by a renewed coalition of the Democratic Party and its allies.

On the steps of parliament, SNS leader Tomislav Nikolic tipped what he described as thousands of unused ballot papers on the ground, saying they were found dumped in a garbage container, and accused the Democrats of adding the names of dead people to the voter list.

“We’ll prove they stole 15 percent of the votes,” Nikolic told reporters. “They took the names of 500,000 dead people and listed them as voters. The dead cannot complain.”

The party had not lodged an official complaint but said it expected police to react. Nikolic threatened “magnificent” street protests.

The state Election Commission dismissed the accusations as unfounded. Nikolic goes head-to-head with incumbent president and Democratic Party leader Boris Tadic in a run-off for the presidency on May 20.

The accusations come a day after Tadic’s Democratic Party announced it had reached a deal with the third-placed Socialists of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic to renew their 4-year-old governing coalition that would keep the country edging towards the European Union.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s reformist Democratic Party and the resurgent Socialists of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic agreed on Wednesday to renew a governing coalition that would keep the country edging towards the European Union.

The alliance locks out the opposition Serbian Progressive Party, which narrowly won a parliamentary election on Sunday, but it will need the support of another junior partner to secure a majority in the 250-seat parliament.

“They share our values,” Democratic Party deputy leader Dragan Sutanovac told a news conference, referring to the Socialists. “We’ve been partners with these people for four years and there’s no mistrust.”

The two first joined forces in 2008, eight years after the Democrats swept to power with the ouster of Milosevic and tilted the former Yugoslav republic westwards following a decade of war and isolation.

Together they arrested and extradited the last Serb war crimes fugitives from the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia and in March Serbia became an official candidate for membership of the EU.

But the government had a patchy record on reforming the economy, the judiciary and the bloated public sector. Organized crime and corruption remain rife. Pummeled by the crisis in the euro zone, the Serbian economy will struggle to register 0.5 percent growth this year, while almost a quarter of the work force is now jobless.

The EU is weighing up whether to open accession talks with Belgrade next year.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – The Socialist Party of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic held the key to power in Serbia on Monday, after an inconclusive election in which voters punished the ruling Democratic Party for their economic woes.

The Democrats, part of a reformist bloc that ousted Milosevic in 2000 and turned Serbia westwards, saw their support crumble to 23 percent from 38 percent in 2008, hurt by a downturn that has left a quarter of the workforce jobless.

In contrast to the last election, all the main parties now share a central goal of EU membership, and the Socialists might choose to switch from their existing alliance with the Democrats and ally themselves with the election victors, the right-wing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which won around 24.7 percent.

With the Socialists in the driving seat, the horse-trading to build a government may take up much of the available 90 days, though most analysts ultimately expect them to renew what was a largely effective coalition with President Boris Tadic’s Democrats.

“They have a happy marriage behind them and after all, better the devil you know than the angel you don’t,” said Nenad Sebek, the executive director of the Centre for Reconciliation and Democracy think-tank.

The SNS, led by former ultranationalists under Tomislav Nikolic who say they now share the goal of EU accession, look likely to command around 72 of parliament’s 250 seats once all the votes are in, while the Democrats are set for 67-70 seats.

Even with the Socialists’ 48 or so, either of the main parties would need other allies to get to a majority, 126 seats.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s ruling liberals and right-wing opposition were tied for control of the Balkan country on Sunday after knife-edge elections in which the party of late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic emerged as kingmaker.

The opposition Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), led by former ultranationalist allies of Milosevic, claimed the narrowest of victories in the parliamentary election over the ruling Democratic Party, playing to voter anger over economic stagnation.

The SNS said it would open coalition talks without delay.

But the results of smaller parties suggested the Democratic Party, in power since Milosevic’s ouster in 2000, was well-placed to reform the outgoing, reformist coalition that has steered Serbia to within a whisker of talks on joining the European Union.

The two biggest parties will also fight it out for control of the presidency, when SNS leader Tomislav Nikolic and Boris Tadic of the Democrats go head-to-head in a run-off vote on May 20.

With some 25 percent, Nikolic had a slight lead over Tadic in the first round, according to preliminary official results, but Tadic is expected to pick up more votes when the election goes down to two candidates.

In the more important parliamentary election, the SNS won 24.7 percent, ahead of the Democrats on 23.2 percent, according to a projection by pollsters CESID.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – The Socialist Party of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic held the key to power in Serbia on Monday after tied elections in which voters angry about the country’s economic woes roundly punished the ruling Democratic Party.

The Democrats, part of a reformist bloc that turned Serbia westwards with Milosevic’s ouster in 2000, saw their support crumble to 23 percent from 38 percent in 2008, hurt by an economic downturn that has left a quarter of the Serbian workforce jobless.

After years of teetering between pro-Western reformers and pro-Russian nationalists, Sunday’s elections for president and parliament were marked by an unprecedented consensus between the major political blocs on Serbia’s bid to join the European Union.

The right-wing Serbian Progressive Party, led by former ultranationalists who say they now share the goal of EU accession, claimed the narrowest of victories in the more-important parliamentary vote with around 24.7 percent, but was seen struggling for coalition allies.

The Democrats and the Progressives will fight it out for control of the presidency, too, when Democrat incumbent Boris Tadic and opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic go head-to-head in a run-off on May 20.

The Socialists, led by Milosevic’s former spokesman Ivica Dacic, doubled their vote to some 16 percent and emerged as kingmakers.

They are widely tipped to revive Serbia’s outgoing ruling coalition with the Democratic Party, an unwieldy, reformist alliance that has brought the country of 7.3 million people to within a whisker of talks on joining the EU.