Slobo Femic cast a contemptuous glance at voters outside a polling station in the pretty Montenegrin coastal town of Herceg Novi yesterday morning. By his side was Buda, a huge, slavering dog. The Yugoslav presidential and parliamentary elections taking place were so fraudulent, Mr Femic said, that he had told his dog to vote instead of him.
On the other side of the road, however, a few voters were ignoring the request of Montenegro's independent-minded government to boycott federal-level elections, which they have deemed unconstitutional. The voters were filing into a social centre to vote in a contest between President Slobodan Milosevic and Mr Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition challenger.
Many were refugees from previous Yugoslav wars, who have filled the town's electoral roll and turned it into the only coastal stronghold for pro-Yugoslav Montenegrins.
"I've voted for Yugoslavia, and that's the reason I came out to vote," said one elderly lady who refused to give her name.
Sofija Jovocic (78) and Zlatana Blecic (65), both refugees from other republics of the former Yugoslavia, said they would have voted for Mr Milosevic. But they had been unable to provide identification papers to satisfy the electoral officials.
Voters' and non-voters' comments showed the deep divisions in Montenegrin society about whether to continue as the junior partner in Yugoslavia alongside Serbia.
Some voters said Serbs and Montenegrins had always been one people but Mr Femic, the non-voting dog-owner, stressed Montenegro's long history of independent statehood.
The refusal of independence-inclined Montenegrin officials to recognise the elections meant that voting took place in unconventional sites. Barracks of the pro-Yugoslav army and private homes of supporters of the pro-Yugoslav Socialist People's party were among the 600 places used across the country.
In Herceg Novi, federal army military police occupied the town hall for several hours on Saturday in order, they said, to safeguard ballot boxes and papers.
The army also said it would protect polling stations against what it said were Montenegrin efforts to intimidate voters.
By yesterday morning, most signs of tension in Herceg Novi was gone, with voters and non-voters both apparently doing as they liked.
An air of menace was not absent everywhere, however.
But a western observer in Podgorica, the capital, pointed out that Montenegro's police, despite a heavy presence in Podgorica, were largely avoiding confrontation that could bring them into conflict with federal forces.
Since last year's Kosovo conflict, the republic has successfully avoided being drawn into a power struggle with the Belgrade-based federal authorities.
There may still be problems to come, however. International observers thought the official figure indicating a 35 per cent poll by 4 p.m. too high.
Yet although the next few days are likely to be critical for the maintenance of peace, the observers expected most problems to be concentrated in Serbia.
Montenegro's precarious balancing act between independence and subjugation should be able to continue.