Unflinching defiance and an unerring instinct for staying in power have characterized President Slobodan Milosevic's turbulent and sometimes bloody decade in power. As the Serbian President clings on to power despite a rout in the polls, ITN charts his turbulent past.

Now, facing a highly popular opposition candidate, Vojislav Kostunica, who is way ahead in independent public opinion polls, Milosevic may finally be forced to go.

Yet there are widespread fears that Milosevic will cling on - as he has done in all previous elections - relying on vote rigging and even use force to stay in power.

Climbing the ladder of power

The 59-year-old Milosevic was born in Pozarevac, an industrial city central Serbia, to a father who was a theologist and a mother who was a teacher.

They both committed suicide in his youth.

After graduating from Belgrade law school in 1964, Milosevic joined the Communist Party, the traditional avenue to power in communist Yugoslavia.

He moved up the career ladder, holding various business positions until 1983 when he was appointed director of Beobanka, one of the major state-run banks.

After orchestrating a 1987 putsch against his mentor, Serbian Communist Party leader Ivan Stambolic, Milosevic used his political power base to expand his influence.

Stambolic was abducted in Belgrade a month ago and has not been seen since.

Exploiting Serb nationalism when Yugoslavia's gradual disintegration began, Milosevic became Serbia's president in 1989 by advocating the Serbian supremacy that would fuel wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia - and ultimately in Kosovo.

Power at any price

Milosevic exploited legal loopholes to remain in power.

Prevented by the constitution from another term as president, Milosevic simply switched offices, becoming the president of Yugoslavia - which includes Serbia and Montenegro - in 1997 and endowing that previously toothless position with unlimited authority.

When his term in office was about to expire, he changed the constitution in July to have Yugoslav presidents elected by popular vote for up to two, four-year terms.

Milosevic was brutal in putting down early challenges, calling out Yugoslav army tanks in 1991 to disperse opposition demonstrations.

Later, as international pressure intensified, he thrived on the opposition's disarray, weathering months of demonstrations in 1996 and 1997 to emerge as strong as ever.

In all the conflicts, his message has been the same: The world is united against Serbia and Serbs must resist.

That message has worn thinner as economic distress, caused by international sanctions and economic mismanagement, grew in Yugoslavia and Serbia, the larger of Yugoslavia's two remaining republics.

If the splintered opposition had united in a joint bloc against him, Milosevic, now supported by only about a quarter of Serbs, would have been out a long time ago.

But last year's NATO war against Yugoslavia over Kosovo strengthened his hand again as Serbs took it as the ultimate evidence of the world's conspiracy against them.

Milosevic the family man

Almost totally isolated at home and abroad, Milosevic's closest counsel is his hard-line wife, Mira Markovic, 58, whose withering diatribes against the West set the tone for the elections.

They have two troublesome children - daughter Marija, 35, who runs a radio and television station, and son Marko, 26, a disco owner and race car enthusiast with rumored business ties with the underworld.

A new future for Serbia?

The election has been a battle between two visions: the go-it-alone nationalism of Milosevic, appealing to ancient Balkan pride and humiliations versus the message of normality put across by Vojislav Kostunica, mild-mannered law professor.

Kostunica's promise to turn Yugoslavia into "a normal European democratic country" is a seductive one for a nation isolated from the West.

The country has watched from the sidelines while other former communist countries like Poland and Hungary set out to join a peaceful, borderless European Union.

The mild-mannered professor

Vojislav Kostunica's appeal is in his no-frills style.

Where Milosevic is assertive, Kostunica is soft-spoken.

Where Milosevic is imperious, his rival is unassuming.

When Milosevic was rising through the communist party ranks, Kostunica was fired for being an anti-Communist.

Milosevic campaigns over television or at scripted public events.

Kostunica goes door-to-door to press home his message.

Countering Milosevic's shrill denunciations of his foes as "rats and hyenas" in thrall to the West, Kostunica stresses his own Serbian patriotism and strongly deplores last year's NATO bombing of his country.

Most importantly, perhaps, Kostunica is untainted by the scandals and corruption surrounding the Milosevic entourage.

His campaign poster simply reads: "Who can look you straight in the eyes?"

This image has rallied 18 opposition groups around him.

Playing by the rules

Charges of cheating have dogged Milosevic in previous elections.

Local and foreign-based monitoring organizations have recorded flagrant violations during Milosevic's rule, first as president of Serbia, then of Yugoslavia itself.

"Milosevic's regime has stolen years of our lives," Kostunica said at an election rally. "And now, it's preparing the theft of the century."

"Save Serbia from this madhouse, Kostunica," people in the crowd chanted.

"The most important thing is that we start living a normal life," says Radmila Maslovaric, an English-language teacher.

"I believe that by winning this election, Kostunica can bring back our dignity and smiles on the faces of our citizens," she continued.

Kostunica has spoken out against the indictment of Milosevic by a U.N. tribunal on war crimes charges stemming from atrocities committed against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo last year.

And he promises there will be no revenge-taking under his presidency - a reassuring notion in a political and social climate where grudges are often settled by the gun.

On Kosovo, he promises to do his best for the province's Serb minority and work to repatriate those who fled in fear of Albanian vengeance.

And in direct contrast to his rival, who has clung tenaciously to power, Kostunica says he will call new elections within 18 months.

"I cannot promise immediate prosperity, but I give my word that all the citizens of this country will be free and equal," Kostunica says. "I give my word that I will try to change our country to the better, without letting power change me."

Milosevic still popular

Despite Kostunica's conciliatory and sensible messages, Milosevic still has many hardline supporters - an estimated 20 percent to 30 percent of the electorate - who are ready to follow their leader despite the decline his rule has brought to the country.

"I will vote for Milosevic because he won't sell this country to the Americans and NATO," says Milovan Stankovic, a 60-year-old construction worker. "They hate him and that's why I love him."

The continuing pressure on Milosevic by the United States and its allies, as well as strict sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia, allow Milosevic to exploit the country's isolation for propaganda purposes and present himself as a true defender of national interests against the "evil" NATO.

Milosevic's voters are mostly elderly and rural people, of low education, very much susceptible to his rhetoric after years of isolation and poverty.

Psychologists call it a "ghetto" syndrome, when isolated people begin to believe their isolation is good.

"We face a hot autumn," says Jozsef Kasza, a Kostunica backer. "This regime is locked in a life-and-death struggle - it either survives or faces the international court of justice." .

Related links Milosevic's ruling Socialist party website Vojislav Kostunica official website Media Works - guide to Yugoslavian politics

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