A SENIOR hardliner in Serbia's ruling Socialist Party said yesterday it would appeal a ruling restoring an opposition election victory in Belgrade. This signalled that Serbia's political crisis is far from over.
The opposition coalition has been partly vindicated in its drive to redeem victories in annulled municipal elections, but the breakthrough looked vulnerable to challenges or sabotage by Socialist Party diehards.
Electoral officials in the capital overruling a district court voted 10-1 on Tuesday to reinstate the opposition Zajedno (Together) coalition's victory in elections for the Belgrade municipal assembly.
The electoral commission in Nis, Serbia's second biggest city made a similar ruling reinstating a Zajedno majority on its regional council achieved on November 17th in the local elections held across Serbia.
But Mr Branislav Ivkovic, leader of the SPS's Belgrade branch throughout the crisis, told the independent newspaper Blic his party would challenge the commission ruling, a move bound to infuriate the opposition and the West.
"If it's true, we will use all legal means [to overturn the decision]," said Mr Ivkovic, who was removed from his post on Tuesday in an SPS shakeup, but appeared to remain influential.
Mr Ivkovic was not purged from the party, unlike two other senior officials, and he was replaced by another hardliner, Mr Dragan Tomic, who is also speaker of the Serbian parliament.
Election commissioners said the results they announced were only preliminary and the SPS had until Saturday to challenge the rulings.
Zajedno remained suspicious of President Slobodan Milosevic's intentions and vowed to continue street protests. Thousands of people rallied in Belgrade again yesterday, the 59th consecutive day of protests across Serbia.
Zajedno said it would not call off demonstrations until its election victories in all 14 cities at issue were certified.
Two developments during the day showed the hardline Socialist Party was not preparing to go quietly.
One of eight Belgrade ward councils also affected by the annulment convened with an SPS majority but no Zajedno representatives - the result of a subsequent round of voting which Zajedno boycotted as fraudulent.
Would be Zajedno councillors entered the chamber to demand that the opening session be postponed until the November election outcome was restored, but they were ignored.
In another setback, the SPS dominated Belgrade University Council resoundingly rejected students' demands for the sacking of the university's rector.