chicagotribune.com

But an acrimonious row over alleged election fraud and talk of a “fight” to defend the vote has revived memories of the dark days of a divided Serbia under Milosevic and threatens to overshadow a Tadic victory.

Election authorities and foreign monitors found no evidence of the 500,000 votes Nikolic says were forged in parliamentary and first-round presidential elections on May 6.

But he’s threatening to call supporters into the streets anyway, dumping on the steps of parliament sacks of ballot papers he says were stolen from him and his rightist Serbian Progressive Party, the country’s biggest party.

“God only knows what happened,” said pollster Marko Blagojevic of the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID). But, he said, “It could lead to a serious rise in tensions.”

The row has brought back unhappy memories for many Serbs who marched in the streets against rigged elections under Milosevic, finally toppling him in October 2000 after a decade of war and isolation.