General elections were held in Yugoslavia on 24 September 2000. They included the presidential election, which was held using the two-round system, with a second round scheduled for 8 October. After the first round, the Federal Electoral Commission announced that Vojislav Koštunica of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) was just short of the majority of all votes cast needed to avoid a runoff against the runner-up and incumbent president Slobodan Milošević. However, the DOS coalition claimed that Koštunica had received 52.54% of the vote. This led to open conflict between the opposition and government. The opposition organized demonstrations in Belgrade on 5 October 2000, after which Milošević resigned on 7 October and conceded the presidency to Koštunica. USAID subsequently released revised election results with Koštunica having slightly over 50% of all votes cast. In the Federal Assembly elections, DOS emerged as the largest faction in the Chamber of Citizens, whilst the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro won the most seats in the Chamber of Republics. The elections were boycotted by the ruling coalition of Montenegro, led by the Democratic Party of Socialists. Background In the summer immediately following the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, opposition parties began discussing who could run as a united opposition candidate in the upcoming elections. In a meeting in Budva that summer, Branislav Kovačević and Nenad Čanak proposed that Ivan Stambolić run for president with the backing of a multi-party coalition. After the formal establishment of the DOS coalition, Stambolić met with Kovačević on several occasions. Several events occurred during the spring before the election that significantly contributed to a politically volatile environment; on 13 May 2000, the Chairman of the Executive Council of Vojvodina, Boško Perošević, was assassinated. Following his assassination, the Yugoslav Left announced it would propose a Law on the Defense of the State, which was scheduled to be assessed by the Parliament on 23 May 2000. Meanwhile, state-affiliated news outlets accused the opposition of the terrorism and subservience to NATO. The law was never passed through the Parliament. In June 2000, Stambolić told Kovačević that he would run as the DOS candidate as long as the coalition parties approved of his candidacy, and that he run face-to-face against Milošević as opposed to a different SPS candidate. On 6 July 2000, the parliament amended the constitution of Yugoslavia such that the president would no longer be selected by the Parliament, but would