Washington, 5 November 1996 (RFE/RL) -- The United States says Sunday's municipal and parliamentary elections in rump Yugoslavia were seriously flawed.
U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns, citing U.S. embassy monitors, says there were problems with voter lists and transmission of the vote count, problems with access to polling places by opposition members and by monitors and the media.
The Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which also monitored the elections, has not yet released its report.
But Burns summed up Washington's view, saying "the United States has deep, longstanding concerns about the development of democratic norms in Serbia and Montenegro."
He dismissed as "absolutely ludicrous" a suggestion that the United States supports the Serbian Socialist party of Serbia's president Slobodan Milosevic.
Burns said: "the U.S. is not supporting Milosevic or his party. We've had our differences with Mr. Milosevic, we are not supporting him in these elections."