A veteran Communist Party official trounced Slovenia's opposition leader to win the state presidency, while nationalists took the lead in Croatia, according to initial election results released Monday.
In the Croatian capital of Zagreb, election officials said incomplete results from the state's first free elections in 50 years showed the opposition Croatian Democratic Commun-ity had a slight advantage over the ruling Communist Party.The Croatian Democrats, together with the opposition Coalition of National Consent, advocate an independent state within a Yugoslav confederation or even outside Yugoslavia.
The two opposition parties are led by former Communist officials who were accused of Croatian nationalism and forced by former President Josip Broz Tito to step down some 20 years ago.
About 3.5 million voters in Croatia, Yugoslavia's second biggest state, voted Sunday to choose 365 deputies for the three-house Croatian parliament out of 1,706 candidates. Monday, about 1.6 million workers voted to elect 162 deputies for the Croatian parliament's House of Laborers.
Croatia is to stage its second round of elections in two weeks.
In the northwestern state of Slovenia, where an opposition coalition is likely to replace a communist government, 1.5 million citizens went to a second round of polls Sunday to choose between a communist and an opposition candidate for Slovenian president.
Veteran Communist Party leader Milan Kucan, 49, was elected state president over Joze Pucnik, 58, in the second round of balloting. Preliminary official results showed Kucan won 58.36 percent and Pucnik 41.64 percent.
Kucan is in favor of an autonomous Slovenian state within a Yugoslav loose federation, or confederation, while Pucnik advocates an independent Slovenia outside Yugoslavia.
Kucan, who has been president of the Slovenian Communist Party for the past three years, told reporters Monday in the state capital of Ljubljana the elections reaffirmed the wish of the people to "build democratic and peaceful relations with other nations."
The ruling Communist Party in Slovenia's first round of elections two weeks ago garnered enough votes to emerge as the largest single party but lost to the Demos United opposition bloc.