THE Serbian parliament approved a special law yesterday reinstating opposition victories in local elections whose annulment touched off three months of civil unrest.
The Serbian deputies voted 128 in favour of the bill, one abstained and one refrained, the speaker of the parliament said.
In a special session boycotted by opposition parties, legislators in the ruling Socialist Party hoped to end what has escalated into the strongest challenge yet to President Slobodan Milosevic's 10 years of absolute rule.
The crisis was triggered by his annulment of a string of opposition wins in local elections held in November, but it also reflects broader discontent over economic misery and political repression under eastern Europe's last communist-style regime.
The opposition coalition Together says its street protests will continue until the disputed assemblies are safely in its control. This could take up to two weeks because the bill considered by parliament yesterday has to make its way through various layers of Serbia's complex legal and administrative system.
Debate on the election bill, the third of four items on the parliamentary agenda, began late yesterday afternoon. The bill will reinstate opposition election wins in 14 cities, including Belgrade, and eight neighbourhood assemblies in the capital, where the government scrapped the results rather than admit defeat. Under intense pressure at home and abroad, until now it had relented and admitted defeat only in six of the cities, but not the capital.
Before the election bill debate began, parliament approved a previously announced cabinet reshuffle as President Milosevic - sought to shore up his power base after months of civil unrest.
A deputy prime minister and six other ministers were ousted in the changes. Among key appointments was that of Mr Milan Beko to head a new ministry that will begin the privatisation of the huge and financially ailing state sector of the economy.
Mr Radmila Milentijevic, a hard-line Milosevic loyalist, was appointed to the information ministry and immediately said the majority of students were not protesting in the streets. For the past 12 weeks tens of thousands of students have protested against the elections fraud.
The government had remained defiant as it prepared for the vote confirming Mr Milosevic's about-face, with the Prime Minister, Mr Mirko Marjanovic, saying the opposition had been aiming to take power by force.
The opposition was boycotting yesterday's session because of a separate, long-standing dispute over the lack of television coverage of parliamentary debates. Electoral vindication for the opposition, fractious and inexperienced, will set the stage for an even tougher fight with the regime over broad democratic reforms, such as easing the government's tight grip on the media and changes to electoral laws.
One opposition leader, Mr Zoran Djindjic, has depicted electoral vindication as the opening salvo in a broader battle against Mr Milosevic. He forecasts "a hot spring and an even hotter summer".