New Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was sworn in on Monday as his nationalist foes walked out of the Serbian parliament in protest against alleged election fraud.
Milutinovic was elected on Dec. 21 after Slobodan Milosevic, banned by the constitution from running for the Serbian presidency for a third time and still the real power in the country, took over the Yugoslav federal presidency this summer."I am convinced that the period which lies ahead of us will be marked by development and progress in Serbia," Milutinovic told the assembly, promising comprehensive reforms.
"We need to catch up with the developed world and participate . . . primarily in economic integration processes in Europe and the world."
Milutinovic, previously foreign minister, was hand-picked by Milosevic as a loyal ally who would do his bidding in office, but his victory was marred by vote-rigging allegations.
The ultra-nationalist Radical Party accused Milutinovic's ruling Socialists of "stealing" 100,000 votes to inflate the turnout figures to ensure they exceeded the legal minimum of 50 percent.
When the election was first held in October, Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj won the biggest share of the vote against first-choice Socialist candidate Zoran Lilic, but the poll was declared void, because the turnout was too low.
Radical Party deputies greeted Milutinovic's entry into the parliament on Monday with cries of "Thief! Thief!" and stormed out.
The firebrand Seselj is a sworn enemy of the Western-led peace process in Bosnia and of compromise with the pro-autonomy ethnic Albanian majority in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo.
The undisputed ruler of Yugoslavia and Serbia remains Milosevic, who has transferred the levers of power to the federal level.