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BELGRADE : A polarised Serbia on Saturday mulled the path it should take -- towards Europe or a likely return to isolation -- on the eve of polls seen as the most important since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic.
In Sunday's general elections, a pro-Western alliance spearheaded by President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party faces an uphill battle to see off ultra-nationalists bolstered by anger about Kosovo's independence.
A total of 6,865,400 people are eligible to vote including more than 115,000 Serbs scattered across Kosovo, the Albanian-majority province which broke away from Serbia almost three months ago.
The snap elections were called when the government -- a wobbly year-old coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's nationalists and Tadic's pro-Europeans -- crumbled in March after most members of the European Union recognised Kosovo.
Running on the ticket "For a European Serbia," Tadic's coalition is neck-and-neck in the latest surveys with the ultra-nationalist Radical Party, with each camp expected to pick up one third of the vote.
"The May 11 elections are a form of referendum at which citizens will decide on whether or not Serbia... will be a member of the European Union," Tadic said in a pitch to voters at the end of a spiteful campaign.
The Radicals' formal leader, Vojislav Seselj, is an old Milosevic ally who is being tried for war crimes before the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
Its acting president, Tomislav Nikolic, hopes to join forces with Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia which has yet to rule out such an option.
The creation of a nationalist government is certain to end Belgrade's cooperation with the ICTY, thus halting its integration with the European Union and pushing it back into the isolation of the 1990s Milosevic regime.
In a move meant to woo voters disillusioned with the West, the European Union signed last week a pre-membership pact with Serbia.
However this only added spice to a campaign that was marred by death threats against Tadic, as well as bitter mudslinging and counter-accusations.
Reflecting the divisions in the electorate, one voter, Nina Aralica, described the EU deal as the "only good sign for our future." Another, Marko Vojinovic, said it "could only mean that we will become slaves to more developed countries."
The UN war crimes tribunal is still seeking four Serbian fugitives including Ratko Mladic -- the former Bosnian Serb military commander wanted on genocide charges over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
Kostunica, a brooding constitutional lawyer who like the Radicals favours closer ties with Russia, has made the battle to keep Kosovo in Serbia the cornerstone of his re-election bid.
Some 40 nations including the United States and all but a handful from the EU have recognised Kosovo since its ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament unilaterally declared independence on February 17.
The traumatic loss of the southern territory -- viewed by most Serbs as the cradle of their history, culture and Orthodox Christian religion -- has buoyed support for the nationalists ahead of the elections.
The parliamentary and local polls will also be held in Kosovo despite opposition from the United Nations and Kosovo Albanians about the local elections, which they see as an attempt by Serbia to partition the breakaway territory.
Given the tightness of the race, the two main blocs -- the pro-Europeans and nationalists -- will need to hammer out a coalition with at least one other smaller party.
Two of these are poles apart -- the Socialists founded by Milosevic and the Liberal Democrats whose leader Cedomir Jovanovic negotiated his arrest in 2001.
Analysts have been busy predicting possible coalitions, mostly coupling the Radicals with Kostunica's nationalists, or Tadic's Democrats with minority parties.
Serbs with the right to vote in Britain, Canada, Portugal and the United States already began casting their ballots on Saturday. Those in another 36 countries will vote on Sunday.
Voting at more than 8,600 polling stations, including 295 in Kosovo, begins at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) on Sunday and ends 13 hours later. The first preliminary estimates are expected at around 10:00 pm (2000 GMT).
- AFP /ls
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