PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL BLACKOUT STARTS AT MIDNIGHT THURSDAY

BELGRADE, Dec 5 (Hina) - Electoral blackout begins in Serbia at midnight on Thursday before Sunday's repeated presidential ballot whose candidates are incumbent Yugoslav President and leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia Vojislav Kostunica, Serb Radical Party president Vojislav Seselj, and Party of Serb Unity leader Borislav Pelevic. #L# Numerous organisations and individuals have been urging citizens to vote as half the 6.5 million eligible constituents should cast their ballots in the first round for the elections to be valid. Belgrade-based newspapers Politika and Vecernje novosti in today's editions published an article written by Javier Solana in which the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security tells citizens the December 8 ballot has to succeed in order for Serbia to get the internal stability it needs. The parties of the ruling coalition DOS have taken differing stands towards the upcoming election. Nenad Canak's League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic's Democratic Christian Party of Serbia have announced they will boycott the ballot. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic's Democratic Party has not supported any of the three candidates. The influential expert organisation G17 Plus has done the same, while some DOS parties have urged people to vote for "the only democratic candidate", Kostunica. If the required number of people vote at Sunday's election, Kostunica should win with about 60 percent of the vote, according to a poll Vecernje novosti published today. Seselj, who has been supported by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, may expect some 33.5 percent and the leader the Party of Serb Unity, which was established by Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, 4.2 percent of the vote. (hina) ha sb