PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Sept 24 (AFP) - The head of Kosovo's UN administration, Bernard Kouchner, said Sunday that voter turnout had been "low" in the first five hours of the Yugoslav elections being held in the province.

Between 7:00 p.m. (0500 GMT) and midday, 21,873 potential voters had been seen entering polling stations, Kouchner said.

Kosovo is thought to have a population of slightly under two million, but the vast majority of residents are ethnic Albanian and seem set to boycott the Yugoslav election.

Some 100,000 Serbs live in the Yugoslav province, and it is in their areas that the vast majority of polling stations are sited.

Three polling stations were opened "for a very short time" in majority Albanian areas, Kouchner said, but only eight people were observed voting in them.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Sept 24 (AFP) - Kosovo's defiant Serb minority turned out to vote in a chaotic, improvised sideshow to Yugoslavia's election Sunday, reaffirming the federation's claim on the breakaway province.

The Yugoslav province's UN administration kept a discreet distance between itself and the federal legislative and presidential elections, which began in a hurried and at times shambolic fashion, boosting fears of massive fraud to come.

In the largest remaining Serbian area, the north of the province around the divided town of Kosovksa Mitrovica, furious rows broke out between opposition officials and and members of President Slobodan Milsoevic's Serbian Socialist Party (SPS) about the right of displaced Serbs to vote and about interference by party members in polling.

The massive migrations caused by the Kosovo war and its aftermath have thrown electoral lists into confusion. In a Mitrovica schoolhouse designated as a voting station for displaced people only 80 names appear on the list, although "there are hundreds of displaced people" according to Edvard Vizin, head of the station.

"There are no polling booths and the voting slips are being handed out by SPS members," complained the opposition's Dragisa Djokovic, after she was thrown violently out of a polling station by Milosevic supporters after complaining of voting irregularities.

In the central encalve of Gracanica an onlooker, who did not want to be named, told AFP that SPS officials had a second voting list to enable their supporters to vote twice.

"If things aren't going well for Milosevic they'll get a call from Belgrade," he said, "Then they'll bring out the second list and officials and factory owners will force people to come and vote."

But despite the refusal of Kosovo's UN mission to help organise the vote -- which it has branded a "farce" -- and the almost total opposition of the province's ethnic Albanian majority, Yugoslav officials managed to open polling stations in both Serbian areas and in the capital Pristina, AFP reporters saw.

"The entire international community has done everything it can to work against us and stop the poll," declared Vasic Srdjan, 40, an ardent Milosevic supporter, voting in Gracanica

"But on the very day they allowed the elections to take place every illusion that Kosovo would ever be independent fell."

The votes of Kosovo's Serbs could be vital for Milosevic if he is to see off the challenge of Vojislav Kostunica, the oppostion candidate who who leads the latest opinion polls.

Officials of the Yugoslav election commission and SPS members distribute voting slips and ballot boxes for the Serbian and Yugoslav general election, and the first round of the Yugoslav presidential poll.

Voting began at 7:00 a.m. (0500) GMT in Gracanica and Mitrovica but was delayed until around 9:00 a.m. in Pristina, where one mobile polling station was deployed in Ulpiana, the one inner city estate where some 50 Serb families still live in the otherwise ethnic Albanian capital.

The head of the UN mission, former French health minister Bernard Kouchner, has refused to legitimise the Yugoslav poll by organising or monitoring the voting, but instead has put in place a network of "witnesses" to "assess the magnitude of activities."

The plan, officials told AFP, is to give the lie to any inflated claims by Milosevic's regime that is has succeeded in gaining hundreds of thousands of votes in a province where the ethnic Albanian majority is expected to boycott voting totally.

On Sunday small groups of UN officials, OSCE election monitors and NATO peacekeeping troops maintained a discreet vigil in front of polling stations, AFP saw, keeping a tally of those coming and going.

The UN mission in Kosovo has administered the province since last June when the NATO air bombardment brought to an end the 1998-1999 war between ethnic Albanian separatists and Belgrade's troops.

An estimated 100,000 Serbs remain in the province which has a population of two million. A further 187,000 non-Albanians, most of them Serbs, have fled Kosovo since the end of the war, fearing revenge attacks, according to the latest figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanians ignored the Yugoslav elections on Sunday, dismissing them as a purely Serbian event of no consequence to the province they are determined will soon be an independent homeland.

Six hours after the official start of voting, only 55 people -- all Serbs -- had cast ballots at one of only two polling stations in Pristina, a city of some 500,000.

The United Nations, which sent out ``witness teams'' to check the turnout from all Kosovo polling stations, was reporting at 1 p.m. (1100 GMT) that fewer than 6,500 people had cast ballots.

In Kosovo's second city, Prizren, only eight people took part.

Serbs in Pristina, mostly displaced families, voted in an unfinished basement room of the apartment complex that has become a virtual prison yard for 150 Serbs, with British commandos providing round-the-clock protection against potential Albanian revenge attacks.

For the rest of the capital, the election was a non-event.

``Serbia? We have nothing to do with them. Let them go to hell,'' said pensioner Nazmie Hoxha.

The protectorate's U.N. administrator, Bernard Kouchner, banned all Albanian political activities for the day to minimise the risk of any friction with Kosovo's Serb minority, who were voting in their main enclaves in north and central Kosovo.

KOSOVO SERBS UNDER 1 PERCENT OF ELECTORATE

An estimated 60,000 Kosovo Serbs at the maximum would be eligible to vote -- a tiny fraction of Yugoslavia's 7.4 million electorate. Serbian claims that Kosovo Albanians would also be keen to cast ballots were laughed off by Kosovars.

Kosovo holds its own municipal elections in one month -- the first test of democracy in the province since NATO and the United Nations took over control in June last year.

Putting up a wall of bright blue posters in Pristina to encourage a big turnout on October 28, Sami Kastrati said: ``We are getting ready for our elections, and we have nothing to do with this vote that's being held today. Those are elections of a foreign country.''

A U.N. spokesman in the divided northern city of Mitrovica said after touring polling stations in the Serb-dominated northern section that the city was generally quiet.

``As we speak, I can see some people ripping down opposition posters, but other than that it's generally quiet,'' he said.

The only incident appeared to have been when supporters of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic roughed up an opposition party observer for trying to photograph a polling station.

No serious incidents were reported between pro-Milosevic and opposition Serb supporters in central Kosovo -- or harassment by Kosovo Albanians -- in the first three hours of voting.

Kosovo Albanian newspapers, all of which back independence for Kosovo, gave low-key coverage of the Yugoslav election.

The UN's witness teams were checking the turnout to counter any exaggerated claims by the Milosevic regime, suspected of preparing massive electoral fraud to keep him in power.

NATO troops stepped up their foot patrols in the enclaves, including Pristina, where British soldiers with sniffer dogs guarded the site of a downtown ``Peace and Tolerance'' office designated as a polling station but in fact never opened.

``It's been pretty quiet really. We've just been providing our normal patrols and normal security for this area, and everybody is going about their daily business as usual,'' said Marine Commando Corporal Justin Austin.

Elections Peacekeepers, police watch as Serbs cast ballots in divided town

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Peacekeepers and U.N. police kept a discrete watch Sunday over polling stations in this ethnically divided northern city as Serbs arrived to vote in Yugoslav presidential and parliamentary elections.

With no provision for privacy in the classrooms used as electoral centers, voters sat at desks to mark their ballots in full view of the electoral boards and monitors sent from the political parties.

``It is a big problem that there is no screen for the voters,'' said Dragisa Djokovic, head of the local branch of the main Serb opposition party. ``The voting didn't begin in a tolerant atmosphere or a democratic atmosphere.''

Djokovic said he had been harassed by members of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's party when he demanded two monitors from the opposition be allowed to sit in on the voting.

``This is unacceptable. They are not following the law for the elections,'' said local Serb community leader Oliver Ivanovic after casting his ballot in the city's technical school.

But Ivanovic added he did not expect any other incidents. ``I expect that this election will happen in a peaceful and democratic way,'' he said. ``It's a very good opportunity to change our life, to make good connection with the international community. A new president perhaps will help us.''

The U.N.-led administration running Kosovo has allowed balloting in the province, which formally remains part of Yugoslavia, and has said it will observe voter turnout to prevent potential rigging of the results.

Since there has been no proper census in Kosovo in years, it remains debatable how many Serbs still live here more than a year after NATO forced Yugoslav troops to leave and then took over the province.

Therefore, opposition figures fear the government could inflate the rolls to provide Milosevic with phantom votes.

In an attempt to prevent such manipulation. chief U.N. administrator Bernard Kouchner announced that as of early afternoon, U.N. and NATO had counted 21,873 people -- all Serbs -- entering polling stations in Kosovo.

Ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population, have said they will boycott the election. ``Any claim of participation by Kosovo Albanians is a fiction or manipulation,'' Kouchner said.

Ballot boxes of various sizes and colors were set up in classrooms in two schools in Kosovska Mitrovica, under paper Yugoslav flags taped to blackboards.

By 10 am (0800 GMT), 2,000 people had voted throughout the municipality, which has 16 polling stations, the electoral committee said.

But Serb refugees who fled other areas of Kosovo over the past year fearing Albanian reprisal attacks told of problems, with many not finding their names on voting rolls for displaced people.

In the town of Caglavica, one of Kosovo's most prominent Serbs, Momcilo Trajkovic, was refused permission to vote because his name was not on the registration rolls. Trajkovic, a lifelong resident of the area, supports Milosevic's main challenger, Vojislav Kostunica.

``I'm not on the list. I've been going from one polling station to the other all morning, and now I'm going home,'' said one woman from the central Kosovo town of Obilic, who would not give her name.

Those not on registers at their polling stations were asked to try to find their names on the central list stored in a computer set up in an office in the town's primary school.

``Mostly everyone is on the list. But these elections are not happening at a peaceful time. We don't have correct conditions to hold an election, but we are trying,'' said Sinisa Lazic, coordinator for polling stations in Kosovska Mitrovica's primary school.

Milena Tepavcevic, who returned to northern Kosovo last month after living as a refugee in Serbia for several months, stood anxiously outside the office.

``My name is not on the computer,'' she said, beginning to cry. ``I hope these elections make a difference and improve our lives.''

BELGRADE, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Yugoslavs voted on Sunday in crucial presidential and parliamentary elections with President Slobodan Milosevic facing the biggest challenge of his 13-year rule.

Voting was uneven around the country. Early polling was brisk in Belgrade, but majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo totally ignored the elections, and authorities in Serbia's sister republic of Monenegro carried out their threat to boycott the elections.

Only Milosevic supporters were voting in Montenegro, witnesses said.

In Belgrade, a local electoral monitoring organisation reported numerous voting irregularities by midday and said its activists around the country were reporting that the polls were a ``complete mess.''

Marko Blagojevic of the non-governmental Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID) said opposition representatives on electoral commissions had been banned from several polling stations or barred from watching preparations for the vote.

In one polling station police were called when the opposition representatives complained, he said.

MILOSEVIC RELAXED AND CONFIDENT

Milosevic looked relaxed and confident as he voted with his wife Mirjana Markovic in an exclusive Belgrade suburb, and expressed optimism about the vote in a comment carried by state news agency Tanjug.

``I expect the political scene in Serbia to be cleared, creating the conditions for lasting stability and even faster economic development,'' he said, referring to efforts to rebuild the country after last year's NATO air strikes.

The veteran strongman, indicted for war crimes by a U.N. tribunal, called early elections earlier this year confident they would confirm him in power and ensure his continued freedom from arrest.

But the main opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica has regularly been shown leading by between six and 20 percentage points in opinion polls, indicating that Yugoslavs are weary of years of ethnic warfare and international sanctions that have isolated the country.

CHANGE NEEDED, KOSTUNICA SAYS

Kostunica, candidate of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia bloc, also voted in Belgrade, saying Yugoslavia needed a change.

``It should be shown that the authorities in a democracy are changeable,'' Kostunica said, accusing the government of trying to confuse voters and justify any future moves to preserve power at all cost.

The run-up to the elections was marked by a fierce war of words between Western leaders, who accused Milosevic of planning to rig the poll to stay in power, and his government, which has countered that it is that West that plans to cheat.

As the voting got under way Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic repeated that Milosevic was obliged to remain in power until 2001, regardless of the election result.

``Mr Milosevic has his mandate, for constitutional reasons, until the end of June,'' Bulatovic told reporters after voting in Podgorica, capital of Montenegro.

Asked if Milosevic would accept the results, even if they favoured Kostunica, Bulatovic said: ``There is no reason for him not to accept the results of the election.''

More than 7.4 million Serbs, and some 400,000 Montenegrins, were eligible to vote.

The tiny coastal republic of Montenegro, whose pro-Western leadership has sought to distance itself from Belgrade, boycotted the elections, saying they were unconstitutional.

It denounced Yugoslav army plans to help safeguard polling places run by pro-Belgrade parties.

But Montenegro honoured its pledge not to block voters who wanted to take part, and Milosevic supporters voted in makeshift polling stations ranging from private homes to a butcher's shop.

Voting was also sparse in Kosovo, where the United Nations who control the southern province did not recognise the elections and have dismissed them as a likely fraud.

U.N. ``WITNESSES'' KOSOVO VOTE

The U.N. sent out what it called mobile ``witnessing'' teams to check the turnout to ensure that ballot-boxes could not be ``stuffed'' with the votes of Kosovo Albanians.

None of the few Serbs left in the city turned up for the start of voting. Most Serbs fled after KFOR replaced Yugoslav security forces in Kosovo in June 1999.

In Montenegro, tensions between police loyal to the pro-Western government which is boycotting the poll and Yugoslav troops loyal to Milosevic had risen before the vote.

But Podgorica was quiet and neither police nor the army were evident.

The polls opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and were due to close at 8 p.m. The opposition expects to have reliable provisional results by midnight local time and has called people out to town squares across Serbia to hear the outcome.

It was not clear when official results would be announced.

Numerous voting irregularities have been reported in Yugoslavia's crucial presidential and parliamentary elections.

A spokesman for local electoral monitoring group the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID) described the polls as a "complete mess".

Reports of double voting have been coming in from Montenegro, Serbia's junior partner in the Yugoslav Federation, where the pro-Western and independence-minded leadership has declared a boycott of the poll.

Poll security in already tense Montenegro is being conducted by the pro-Serb federal Yugoslav army.

The government of President Slobodan Milosevic and the opposition, led by rival candidate Vojislav Kostunica, have accused each other of planning to rig the results.

There are fears of violence in Belgrade, where both sides have scheduled rallies in a central square on Sunday night.

CESID spokesman Marko Blagojevic listed more than a dozen electoral violations:

- opposition representatives on electoral commissions had been banned from several polling stations

- police had been called when observers complained

- Officials could see which candidate was chosen, either as people voted or through the folded ballot paper

The Yugoslav authorities last week denied the group accreditation for monitoring the polls, accusing it of being a Western propaganda outfit.

Western diplomats are concerned that President Milosevic, who has been trailing his opponent by between six and 20 percentage points in recent opinion polls, may provoke trouble in the region in order to stay in power.

More than 7.4 million Serbian residents, some 400,000 Montenegrins and an estimated 100,000 Kosovo Serbs are eligible to vote.

International peacekeeping troops in Kosovo are on alert to prevent violence between the Serb and Kosovo Albanian communities.

In the past, Kosovo has been an important source of votes for Mr Milosevic, but more than two-thirds of the Serbian population have fled north since Nato's bombing campaign last year.

The polls opened on time at 0700 (0500GMT) and will close at 2000 (1800 GMT). It is not clear when the official results will be announced.

On the eve of the vote, the authorities in Belgrade said they had uncovered two plots to sabotage the ballot.

Yugoslav officials said the opposition was planning to declare a fake victory for its candidate Mr Kostunica and then set up a rival government in Montenegro.

But the opposition and Montenegrin leaders dismissed the allegations, with the latter saying that the allegation showed that President Milosevic was trying to create tension, possibly to justify declaring a state of emergency.

Belgrade has refused to allow European officials to monitor the balloting and severely limited the number of foreign journalists allowed in the country.

Mr Milosevic was elected by the federal parliament in July 1997, for a non-renewable four-year mandate.

But constitutional changes adopted in July allowed him to seek another four years in office.

In order to win the presidency, Mr Milosevic needs to secure over half the votes cast on Sunday.

A second run-off round will be held two weeks after the first vote, if no candidate wins an overall majority.

Mr Milosevic, an indicted war criminal, risks extradition to the UN war crimes tribunal to answer allegations of atrocities committed by his troops in the Kosovo war, if he loses the elections.

BELGRADE, Sept 24 (AFP) - Beside the meat grill menu and the wine list, the names of Slobodan Milosevic and Vojislav Kostunica appear to Yugoslav voters waiting outside the Sutjeska restaurant-turned-polling station in Belgrade.

"Dear guests, the restaurant will be closed on September 24, we thank you for your understanding," reads a note taped to the entrance of polling station number 26 in the electoral district of New Belgrade.

An hour after the voting centre opened, a 30 metre (100 foot) long queue of people stretched outside as people waited patiently to cast their vote in what many see as a possible turning point in Yugoslav politics.

After 13 years at the top, Yugoslav President Milosevic is fighting for his political survival in the crucial polls, trailing behind opposition candidate Kostunica in latest surveys.

"I wanted to come early to vote for the future of my children and grandchildren," said Zagorka Pajic, a 72-year-old pensioner, outside the restaurant.

Under Yugoslav regulations, each voting station can only accommodate 1,000 voters, forcing restaurants, cinemas and other public spaces to be temporarily converted into polling booths.

"I've had my life, it is their turn now to get better one," said Pajic, adding that "this is the best I can do for my two daughters and four grandchildren."

A few meters away, another three queues stand in front of other polling stations based in a local community center.

Most of the people waiting to vote were elderly, as the younger population traditionally cast their ballots later in the day.

However, "for the first hour after the opening of polling stations, more people voted than in previous occasions," Vladislav Dragojevic, a chairman of the local electoral commision, told AFP.

"The elections are a matter of freedom or slavery, so I am here to vote for the freedom of our country," Radivoje Milovanovic, 68, said as he read the pro-government daily Politika.

Grozdana Jovicevic, 71, came to vote with her grandson Marko. "He does not believe that I will make the best choice for him, so I told him to come with me and see for himself, even to advise me if necessary because I am doing this for him" she said smiling at her 21-year-old grandson.

In the district of Zvezdara, Darinka Konstantinovic, 60, said she "could not wait to vote".

"It is clear who we should vote for," she said, admitting that she had voted for the Democratic Opposition of Serbia and its presidential candidate, Kostunica.

"My only wish is to breathe freely for the several years I have left," she said.

In Belgrade's luxurious Dedinje district, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his wife Mira Markovic waited in line for five minutes before casting their ballots, followed by heavy security and a gaggle of photographers and TV cameras.

Milosevic, dressed in dark suit and light blue shirt, was chatting with his wife, as if he was not aware of the 50 journalists waiting for him to vote.

"I did not bring glasses," he told his wife before joining her behind a dividing screen to help her fill the ballots.

Security around his local polling station was stronger than ever, with plain clothes policemen all around, even on the surrounding rooftops.

Only one cameraman from the state-controlled Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) was able to get Milosevic's short statement after the vote, while other reporters were ordered by security to wait in the polling station after the presidential couple had left.

In Belgrade's central Republic Square, a dozen workers were putting up a large stage and sound system in the pouring rain.

"A folk and pop music concert will be held here tonight," one of the workers said as a policeman followed the proceedings.

Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia has announced it will organize concerts throughout the country after the elections, in a response to opposition plans to call its supporters to wait for the results at main squares in numerous Serbian towns, including Belgrade.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Backers of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic voted in makeshift polling stations in the coastal republic of Montenegro on Sunday, while most of his opponents stayed home.

Montenegro's pro-Western government has called for a boycott of the elections, saying they are unconstitutional and that Milosevic would rig the results.

Police, loyal to Montenegro's government, were tightly guarding the presidential palace and other government buildings.

Lacking support from the local government, pro-Belgrade parties turned private homes and everything from a butcher's shop to an atom bomb shelter into polling stations for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

``I'm sure Milosevic will win,'' said Drobujak Milovak, 53, after voting in a Podgorica branch of Yugoslav airlines. ``He is a great patriot and I think everyone loves him.''

Most voters did not have to queue at the 671 polling stations with pollsters expecting turnout to be about a third of the 440,000 electorate, almost all of them pro-Milosevic. Montenegro was warm under early autumn sunshine.

Neither police nor soldiers were at most polling stations in the capital and there were no reports of feared clashes between the Yugoslav army and police, loyal to the republic's government.

But the head of a 300-strong group of independent observers said soldiers and Belgrade loyalists forced monitors to quit 10-15 polling stations. Montenegro has denounced the army for planning to ensure security at polling places.

``In one case soldiers pointed guns,'' Anto Jankovic, head of the U.S.-funded Centre for Democratic Transition, told Reuters.

MONTENEGRO SAYS VOTE WILL BE RIGGED

``I'm not interested in anything about the Yugoslav government,'' said Ivan Lekovich, a 24-year-old student who said he was boycotting the vote and favoured independence for Montenegro, which together with its more powerful neighbour Serbia makes up Yugoslavia.

In one Podgorica suburb, a Yugoslav army jeep turned up at a polling station in a home and two soldiers with pistols in their belts went into the house, apparently to check on voting.

``We're very satisfied. We opened all the polling places. Everything is going democratically,'' said Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic after voting with his wife in a military building in Podgorica.

Montenegro's government fears that Milosevic, indicted by a U.N. court last year for alleged war crimes, could trigger an armed crisis in the republic as a pretext to cancel voting even if he is defeated.

Opinion polls show that moderate Serbian nationalist Vojislav Kostunica has a big overall lead over Milosevic in the Yugoslav vote. Kostunica has scant backing in Montenegro.

Yugoslav paramilitaries sealed off a council building in the Montenegrin coastal town of Herceg Novi on Saturday, bringing a sharp protest from Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic. The pro-Belgrade mayor of the town said they were merely there to guard ballot boxes.

In one Podgorica suburb, voters lined up outside the pink-painted home of Vesko Damjanovic to vote in his dining room, entering under a vine with ripe red grapes. He had strapped a Yugoslav flag to an electricity pole outside.

He asked a cameraman not to film a young man voting, saying that he might lose his job as a punishment by a boss who backed the Podgorica government. ``Film the older people. They've got nothing to lose,'' he said.

By Alexandra Niksic

BELGRADE, Sept 24 (AFP) - Charges of fraud quickly marred crucial Yugoslav elections Sunday just hours after the start of voting which could see President Slobodan Milosevic ousted after bringing a decade of war and crippling international sanctions to the nation.

The charges by the Center for Free and Democratic elections (CESID) underscored fears that Milosevic -- branded a pariah by the West -- will try to hold on to power even if his opponent, the moderate nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, wins on Sunday as predicted by most opinion polls.

CESID's Marko Blagojevic said a representative of Kostunica's alliance, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), had not been authorised to verify voters' registers in the Belgrade suburb of Bolec, while another had not been allowed to stay in a polling station in the Kaludjerica suburb.

In Vinca, near Belgrade, the first voter was not able to verify whether a ballot box was empty "as is necessary," Blagojevic said.

Dozens of other irregularities -- such as voting with no proper identification -- were also noted in smaller towns in Serbia, especially in the south, considered to be a Milosevic stronghold.

In the southern town Vranje, an armoured police vehicle was parked only three meters (10 feet) from a polling station.

Although registered, CESID, a Yugoslav non-governmental organisation, was not authorised to monitor the vote by the federal electoral commission.

The voting and its fallout in coming weeks could prove the toughest test for Milosevic -- indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal for atrocities committed by his army in Kosovo -- after a decade that has seen Yugoslavia split into numerous separate states and entities.

On the eve of the vote, NATO Secretary General George Robertson called Milosevic "the biggest destabilizing factor that there is" in the region.

"This man is a pariah, and so long as he is in power, he will continue to hold back southeastern Europe in joining the European mainstream," he said.

Both Milosevic and Kostunica voted in Belgrade Sunday -- the president surrounded by security and state media, the challenger cheered by 100 citizens gathered to vote in his local centre.

Kostunica, whose campaign has mushroomed from humble beginnings just two months ago, said Sunday's vote was a sign that "the people are released from fear, and dare to say what they think of the regime."

"On the one hand, we have determination, decisiveness and will of the people to change the current regime and the president who personifies that regime," said Kostunica.

"On the other hand, there is an unreadiness, determination and unwillingness by the regime to face that fact, since losing their position means a loss of unlimited power and privileges," he said.

He lashed out at the federal bodies overseeing the elections, insisting they "aimed to bring confusion and chaos among the voter, as well as to justify all future moves" by the regime.

In the Zvezdara district, Darinka Konstantinovic, 60, said she "could not wait to vote".

"It is clear who we should vote for," she said, after casting her ballot for Kostunica.

But in the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo -- administered by the UN since NATO bombed Belgrade's forces out last year -- the defiant Serb minority turned out for chaotic, improvised voting.

In a bid to prove they are still part of Yugoslavia, despite the separatist intentions of the province's ethnic Albanian majority, Serbs turned out early, though squabbles between supporters of Milosevic and the opposition broke out.

"There are no polling booths and the voting slips are being handed out by (Milosevic's) SPS members," complained the opposition's Dragisa Djokovic, after being thrown violently out of a polling station by presidential supporters after complaining of voting irregularities in the northern town of Kosovksa Mitrovica.

In Podgorica, capital of Serbia's tiny partner republic Montenegro, there was no sign of the Belgrade-controlled military police at voting centres a day after the federal army said it would assure security at the booths.

But the DOS cried foul after the election commission reportedly refused access to its monitors at poling stations.

Almost eight million Yugoslavs were eligible to take part in the elections, which will go to a second round within two weeks if no candidate wins an outright majority.

Pre-election opinion polls show Kostunica, running on a DOS ticket of 18 opposition parties, leading Milosevic by between five and 18 points.

The future of the Milosevic regime in doubt, authorities late Saturday suddenly announced that they had uncovered a "foreign-led plan to sabotage" the ballot.

They also expelled a number of foreign journalists from the country after refusing entry to many others during the days ahead of the election.

The West this week dangled the carrot of an end to four years of devastating sanctions if Yugoslav voters oust Milosevic, but the offer was roundly condemned as outside intereference by both the regime and the opposition.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ In the biggest challenge ever to Slobodan Milosevic's rule, voters began choosing a new president and parliament Sunday in a historic ballot which polls indicate the Yugoslav leader may lose.

By midday, however, an independent monitoring group reported major voting irregularities that included opposition representatives being kicked out of polling stations or not allowed to inspect voters' lists, voting boxes and ballots.

At many voting places, police were present in front of polling stations, and there was public _ instead of secret _ voting in southern regions of Serbia, the group said.

``It is worse then ever,'' said Marko Blagojevic from the Center for Free Elections and Democracy. ``I don't think elections like this were ever held anywhere, ever since the Stone Age.''

Sunday's election marks the first time Yugoslavs have ever chosen a president directly. With the race tight and prospects for cheating high, the outcome may turn on which of the two leading candidates _ Milosevic and Vojislav Kostunica _ can convince the public that he is the rightful winner.

Milosevic, appearing relaxed and waiting in line with other voters, cast his ballot, accompanied by his influential wife Mirjana Markovic in the plush Belgrade district of Dedinje where they live.

Milosevic told state-run media that he expected the vote will bring ``good for the country and our people.''

``I expect that the political scene in Serbia will be cleared up, which will create conditions for permanent stability and quick economic development,'' Milosevic said.

Kostunica, backed by 18 opposition parties, has been leading by an average of 10 percentage points in the latest opinion polls. Three other candidates are seeking the presidency, and if no one wins an absolute majority, a runoff will be held in two weeks.

Kostunica said after voting that he expected to win. ``The regime is aware that it is losing these elections and that the people are free from fear to say what they think about such authorities,'' Kostunica said.

Stakes are high for all concerned. The European Union has promised massive aid to the country if Milosevic loses. Montenegro may decide on independence if Milosevic wins.

If Milosevic loses, he risks extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which has indicted him for atrocities committed by his troops in the Kosovo war.

The United States has made ousting Milosevic is a major goal, and Western governments fear there can be no stability in the Balkans as long as he remains in power.

Despite trailing in the polls, Milosevic controls the government media, police and all other centers of power, making him a formidable opponent.

Polls opened on schedule at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and were to close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). In some areas, voters are selecting a president, two houses of parliament and, in the main republic Serbia, local administrations.

Early results were expected by midnight (2200 GMT) but it is unclear when definitive trends will be available.

In the Kosovo village of Gracanica, voting was delayed briefly because of a dispute between the Serbian Radical Party, which fielded its own presidential candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, and Milosevic's followers over who would be permitted to cast ballots.

Radical Party member Miladin Milanovic stormed out of the village school where voting was underway, complaining that refugees would not be allowed to cast ballots. ``They are only allowing (pro-Milosevic) Communists to vote,'' he said.

In Caglavica, one of Kosovo's best-known Serbs, Momcilo Trajkovic, was refused permission to vote because officials claimed his name was not on the registration list. Trajkovic, a supporter of Kostunica, accused the Milosevic government of manipulating the balloting.

NATO peacekeepers stood guard outside a polling station for Serbs set up in the Kosovo capital Pristina in a windowless, vacant shop in the center of the city.

In Podgorica, the capital of independence-minded republic of Montenegro where its leaders urged for a boycott of the vote, Yugoslav army patrolled near the polling stations.

``Believe it or not, Milosevic is a democrat and he will step down if Kostunica wins,'' said Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, Milosevic's ally. ``But I believe Milosevic will win in the first round.''

On the eve of the election, the government claimed opposition parties plan to declare victory regardless of the outcome and set up a rival administration Montenegro.

Following the allegation, the government-run election commission announced that voters must show their marked ballots to electoral officials before casting them in the box to make sure extra papers are inserted.

The opposition denied any such plot and accused the Milosevic camp of trying to intimidate voters.

The campaign was marred by a crackdown against opposition supporters, one-sided coverage by the staunchly pro-Milosevic media, and the lack of broad-based independent monitoring of the Sunday vote.

Yugoslavia refused to let European Union officials monitor the balloting and severely limited the number of foreign journalists permitted in the country. About 30 Western reporters have been expelled from Yugoslavia on the eve of the vote for allegedly not having proper visas or working permits.

Only a limited number of opposition officials will be present at the more than 10,000 polling stations and in state-appointed committees set up to process the ballots. The government invited about 200 observers from China, Russia, Iraq, Vietnam, Angola and other friendly countries, as well as Western European leftists.

The opposition plans its own vote count based on reports from its pollwatchers. It urged supporters to follow the returns Sunday night on video screens in major cities.

Belgrade (dpa) - Yugoslav voters went to the polls in tense presidential and parliamentary elections Sunday, with no major incidents reported in either Serbia or Montenegro before noon.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, casting his ballot in Belgrade, expressed optimism and said the elections would ``cleanse'' the Serbian political scene, Belgrade media reported.

Milosevic was accompanied by his wife Mira Markovic, head of the Yugoslav Left (JUL), who is also running in the elections as a candidate for the federal parliament.

Milosevic, nominated by the coalition of his Socialist Party of Serbia and JUL, said he expected the elections to allow ``long-term stability and economic development''.

Reports on state-run television said voting was normal in Serbia, while a pro-Serbian opposition leader in pro-western Montenegro, the dissident republic whose government is boycotting the polling, of putting ``enormous'' pressure on voters not to cast ballots.

More than 9,300 polling stations opened for 7.8 million Yugoslavs who are registered to take part in the two sets of federal elections. Serbian local and Vojvodina provincial polls were also being held Sunday.

Four other candidates are challenging Milosevic for the presidency - Vojislav Kostunica (Democratic Opposition of Serbia), Tomislav Nikolic (Serbian Radical Party), Vojislav Mihailovic (Serbian Renewal Movement) and Miodrag Vidojkovic (Affirmative Party).

Late surveys showed Kostunica well ahead of Milosevic and the remaining candidates with only marginal chances of reaching the run-off. The polls also indicated that the turnout would be high, above 80 per cent.

But there were fears that Milosevic and his supporters would not accept a defeat at the polls, and that violence could result.

Voting was due to last until 8 p.m. local time, except in Kosovo, where the 300 polling stations would close four hours earlier, due to security concerns.

The electoral commission for Montenegro reported ``some problems'' with opposition officials in the republic.

The director of the Belgrade-controlled state election commission, Neven Gasovic, said the problems had to do with members of the monitoring committee appointed by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, the Beta news agency said.

``They brought some registers of their own, violating rules and disrupting order,'' Gasovic told reporters in Podgorica.

The pro-western government of Montenegro, while boycotting the elections out of protest against the Milosevic regime, has said it would not try to stop the polls taking place.

The Yugoslav Army Saturday took control over the polling stations in the tiny, independence-minded republic, raising tensions and violating the United Nations' demilitarised zone in Herceg Novi, near the disputed Yugoslav-Croatian border.

Yugoslavia has refused western monitors, but invited some 210 observers of its choice, many from countries with a dubious democratic record. It also turned back many foreign journalists and expelled around 20 that were already in the country.

Voting also took place in Kosovo amidst high security measures by the Kosovo Peacekeeping Force (KFOR) and witnessed by the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province boycotted the elections.

``We are here to see from outside the procedure and count people entering in the polling station,'' an UNMIK employee said while standing outside one of the polling stations in the mixed village of Obilic, some five kilometres northwest of Kosovos capital, Pristina.

There were two polling stations in the village where some 7,600 Kosovo Serbs used to live before the end of the Kosovo conflict. Only 857 Kosovo Serbs remain in the town today.

``Todays elections are very important for us Serbs. With them, we document that Kosovo is part of Serbia and Yugoslavia,'' said Vladimir Todorovic, one of the organisers of the elections in Obilic.

BELGRADE, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A local electoral monitoring organisation reported numerous irregularities in the voting process for Sunday's presidential and parliamentary polls in Yugoslavia and local elections in Serbia.

Marko Blagojevic from the non-governmental Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID) said the polls, according to reports from activists around the country, were a ``complete mess.''

Listing more than a dozen incidents which he said just gave a taste of the violations, he said opposition representatives on electoral commissions had been banned from several polling stations or barred from watching preparations for the vote. In one, when they complained, police were called, he said.

Blagojevic said the most serious violation was that in many places, including where he himself was voting, officials could note which candidate was chosen, either as people voted or through the folded ballot paper as it was put in the box.

The Yugoslav authorities last week denied CESID accreditation for monitoring the polls, accusing it of being a Western propaganda outfit.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Dragutin Djurisic says that if he had ``thousands of votes,'' he would cast them all for Slobodan Milosevic.

In admiration for the Yugoslav president, Djurisic, 70, has given up his own bedroom to make it one of 672 polling stations in Montenegro during Sunday's elections.

The pro-Western government of Montenegro, Serbia's sister republic on Yugoslavia, has called for a boycott of the vote, saying it will not be free and fair and will only provide legitimacy for Milosevic.

But the small republic of some 600,000 people is deeply split between those who support the autocratic Yugoslav president and those who are advocating Montenegrin independence.

Montenegrin authorities, who are Milosevic's staunch opponents, did not prevent people from voting, but did not allow that the elections be held in government or public buildings.

Thus, Djurisic offered his modest house in Montenegro's capital of Podgorica. Beds and cupboards were removed from his bedroom, and in came cardboard ballot boxes, chairs and tables for the voting commission.

Paper Yugoslav flag and the country's coat-of-arms were proudly displayed on the bedroom walls.

A long slow-moving line of mostly elderly people _ including a 95-year-old woman _ formed in front of Djurisic's house to vote. Older people _ more susceptible to communist propaganda _ are believed to be Milosevic's main supporters.

``Slobo is our God,'' said Milka Djurekovic, 75. ``There would be no Yugoslavia without him, and we would all become American slaves if he was not our president,'' she added, echoing the pre-election theme fueled by Milosevic's state propaganda.

``I offered my house so I can vote,'' Djurisic said. ``I don't blame the Montenegrin government for boycotting the elections, but they must not prevent people from voting.''

Djurisic said his only worry was that both his sons, who refused to be identified by name or speak to reporters, are against Milosevic. The elder son will vote for Milosevic's toughest challenger, Vojislav Kostunica, while the younger one for another presidential candidate, Tomislav Nikolic of the ultranationalist Radical Party.

Milosevic's opponents have expressed fears of major vote rigging in Montenegro, in addition to the fact that an overwhelming majority of those who cast their ballots will vote for Milosevic.

The Yugoslav army, which is alled with Milosevic, has kept a close watch of the polling stations in Montenegro, which _ the opposition said _ is a major irregularity since this could intimidate the voters.

But Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, a close Milosevic's ally who voted at the army command in Podgorica, rejected the criticism.

``We have here some obstructions of the government of Montenegro, but we are completely certain that the elections are free and democratic,'' Bulatovic said, adding: ``Thanks the military police.''