Serbia has approved a new Constitution reasserting the country's claim over the breakaway Kosovo Province, officials and independent observers said.
Serbian conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and pro-Western President Boris Tadic both congratulated the nation.
Final results were to be announced yesterday but the Belgrade-based Center for Free Elections and Democracy said their sample count indicated that 96 percent of those who participated in the referendum supported the new Charter.
PHOTO: EPA
"This is a great moment for Serbia," Kostunica told Serbian state television. "This is a historic moment, a beginning of a new era."
Tadic said a "huge job is now behind us" and stressed the "best thing about this Constitution is that we now left" the Constitution dating back to former autocratic leader Slobodan Milosevic's regime "behind us."
The estimated turnout was 53.3 percent. At least 50 percent of the country's 6.6 million electorate had to participate for the results to be valid.
State referendum authorities announced similar results, saying 96 percent voted in favor of the new charter -- based on 10.6 percent of returns counted -- and estimated turnout at 53.6 percent.
Kostunica said the turnout was "adequate, considering that opponents chose to boycott the vote" rather than cast "no" votes.
The referendum was been strongly condemned by ethnic Albanians, who have long boycotted any ballot under Serb auspices.
Western diplomats have warned that only international negotiations can decide on Kosovo's future, but the Belgrade politicians believe that adopting the new Constitution would bolster their position in the talks.
Serbia's opposition Liberal Party claimed "massive fraud" had taken place at polling stations in the final hours of voting, with individuals allegedly voting several times and without identification papers.
The Charter's key point declares Kosovo an "integral part of Serbia" despite ongoing UN-brokered talks on the province's future status.
Serbs in Kosovo -- where the 2 million-strong majority ethnic Albanian population was not even invited by Belgrade to vote -- began celebrating even before official results were announced.
Hundreds gathered on Sunday night in the Serb-populated northern Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica, waving banners, cheering and shouting "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia" as NATO peacekeepers watched on and dispatched reinforcements to the scene.
Kostunica was quoted on Sunday as warning countries thinking of recognizing an independent Kosovo that relations with Serbia would suffer.
"I am warning supporters of independence of Kosovo who in unofficial talks are already talking about the possibility of recognition, that such a step would not remain without consequences," he told Russian state television.
Russia is sitting on the fence as a UN decision approaches on what Kosovo's status should be when the world body ends the protectorate status established in 1999 after Serb forces were driven out by NATO.
The province's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority has been demanding independence for years.
Some reports say that Washington could recognize a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo if Moscow were to block a UN move to grant it independent status.
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