LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic is defiantly refusing to step down following an election setback. Political tensions are rising as Milosevic plans to press ahead with a runoff election scheduled for next month. His opponents now threaten a general strike. The latest from CNN's Alessio Vinci in Belgrade.</s>ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Lou. Official, final result issued earlier today by the federal commission showing that neither President Milosevic nor opposition candidate Kostunica have won a clear 50 percent majority. Therefore, a second round will take place on October the 8th. However, the opposition here insists that those numbers are not correct. They insist that president -- that Mr. Kostunica has already won 51 percent of the votes and, therefore, they are boycotting this second round of voting; and now everybody expects to see what happens next. The opposition is threatening a general strike and it is threatening, also, to organize massive demonstrations in order to prevent this second round of voting to take place because, if President Milosevic were to go ahead with this second round of voting alone, he could always claim either to have won the elections in the second round, or he could annul the whole process by saying, simply, that the Democratic process was flawed. So there is really, here, a lot of concern about what Mr. Milosevic's next move will be. Meanwhile Mr. Milosevic appeared on television for the first time a few hours ago, meeting with his top officials both from the Yugoslav left and the socialist party here in Belgrade. Mr. Milosevic telling his party officials to make provisions for a second round of voting, ignoring completely any kind of calls, not only abroad, but also here in Yugoslavia, to step down. I'm Alessio Vinci, CNN, reporting live from Belgrade.
Yugoslav President Milosevic Forces Second Round of Elections