Serbia's president needs a victory in Sunday's parliamentary vote to ensure his grip on power. But for the first time since winning election in 1990, Slobodan Milosevic faces strong opposition.
However, his opponents are pessimistic, claiming no matter what the real outcome, Milosevic will win because he controls the vote count.Keeping a majority in the parliament of Yugoslavia - made up of Serbia and Montenegro - is vital because parliament will select the new president.
Milosevic's second term as Serbia's president expires next year and he's barred from seeking a third term. Election to the hitherto figurehead post of Yugoslav president would give him a vehicle for maintaining power.
Milosevic has dominated Serbia since rising to power in its then-ruling communist party in 1987. He won the first open elections in 1990, and again in 1992. Both times the opposition cried fraud; both times, Milosevic and his governing Socialists denied the charge and prevailed.
As part of his dream of a "Greater Serbia" Milosevic bankrolled Bosnian Serb efforts to divide Bosnia, sparking a 31/2-year war that left 200,000 people dead or missing.
The previously weak and splintered democratic opposition now stands a better chance, because it has united in a four-party alliance and is riding a wave of popular discontent.
In Serbia, which dominates its Yugoslav federation with Montenegro, people are fed up with a ruinous state-run economy, funding of Serb rebellions in Croatia and Bosnia and the crippling international sanctions that ensued. Half the population is unemployed. Inflation is 100 percent a year.
The sister party of Milosevic's Socialists in Montenegro is running against an opposition campaigning for greater independence from Serbia's overbearing embrace.
Nevertheless, Milosevic hopes with help from a tightly controlled media campaign to maintain control over the 138-seat federal Yugoslav parliament.
Current Yugoslav president Zoran Lilic was handpicked by Milosevic.