The Serbian election commission said yesterday that the Socialist candidate, Mr Milan Milutinovic, had been elected republican president and that the turnout of the 7.2 million electorate exceeded the necessary legal minimum.
It reported that Mr Milutinovic won 58.65 per cent of the vote in Sunday's second round run-off compared with 38.14 per cent for his hardline nationalist rival, Mr Vojislav Seselj, of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS).
The commission secretary, Mr Nebojisa Rodic, said 50.53 per cent of the electorate had voted and added: "This unequivocally indicates that voting for the president of Serbia was successful."
The Radicals said their estimates showed the voting turnout was under 50 per cent and accused the Socialists of rigging the result.
Mr Milutinovic (55), Yugoslavia's foreign minister, was the candidate of the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic. The vote was the fourth this year for the presidency, vacated in July by Mr Milosevic when he became president of Federal Yugoslavia, which groups Serbia and its smaller neighbour, Montenegro.
The election of Mr Milutinovic as Serbia's president strengthens the position of Mr Milosevic, political analysts said yesterday.
Mr Milutinovic was backed by the ruling former communist Socialist Party (SPS), which yesterday declared him the victor.
Mr Seselj's Radicals have challenged Mr Milutinovic's victory, saying turnout was only 49.12 per cent. "It is obvious that the victory of Milutinovic was arranged in advance," said Mr Dragan Todorovic, Mr Seselj's campaign manager.
He said the Socialists were guilty of "unprecedented robbery", stuffing ballot boxes and attributing fictitious votes to ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, where the Albanian majority boycotted the poll.
In light of their candidate's victory, the Socialists had achieved their main goal, which was to knock down Mr Seselj and his ultra-nationalists, analysts said.
"Fascism will never win in Serbia," Mr Milutinovic and the SPS officials repeatedly proclaimed during the election campaign, accusing Mr Seselj of "warmongering" and warning that "the world will never accept extreme-right forces" in Serbia.
Mr Milutinovic has promised to take Yugoslavia back into international institutions, but he added that Belgrade would not agree to any "abusive interpretation" of the Dayton peace accords for Bosnia.