1.6 Million Signatures Said to Back Milosevic

Yugoslavia’s ruling parties submitted what they said were nearly 1.6 million signatures backing President Slobodan Milosevic in this month’s presidential election, a number they claimed is enough for him to win easily. Gorica Gajevic, general secretary of Milosevic’s Socialist Party of Serbia, told a Belgrade news conference held by leaders of the three-party coalition that 1,593,825 people had signed to back Milosevic’s candidacy. Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, a Montenegrin, said 181,629 of the signatures had come from Montenegro. Pro-Western authorities in Montenegro, Serbia’s reluctant partner in the Yugoslav federation, have said they will boycott the Sept. 24 election.