Nationalism Yugoslav Unity on Line in Serbian Vote It's seen as a last chance to avert a rush toward disintegration. But the forces of peace are trailing.: [Home Edition]

Serbia's date with the ballot box Sunday will end one of Europe's few remaining one-party regimes, but the election also provides a last chance for Yugoslavia to reconsider its headlong rush toward disintegration and civil war.

Serbia is the last of Yugoslavia's six republics to expose communism to a competitive vote. While the multi-party ballot is a sign of democratic development, the forces for peace and unity are expected to lose.

Four Yugoslav republics that held elections earlier this year stripped the Communists of their parliamentary majorities, voting instead for nationalists pursuing independence from Belgrade.

In Serbia, by contrast, communism and nationalism have worked hand in hand.

The Serbian Socialists, as the former Communists are known, have won strong support among the 6.8 million voters by vowing to settle old scores with rival Croatia and by subjugating ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo.

The leading opposition group, the radical Serbian Renewal Movement, has made the...