Belgrade, Yugoslavia ? Serbia failed for a second time to elect a president as too few voters showed up to cast ballots Sunday, deepening a political crisis in the dominant Yugoslav republic.

The state electoral commission said turnout was about 45 percent of 6.5 million eligible voters, below the required 50 percent and slightly less than when the vote failed in October.

“We can definitely say” the elections failed, said Zoran Lucic, a group spokesman.

The Serbian constitution does not allow for another runoff and it was unclear what would happen after Sunday’s vote was declared invalid.

The low turnout was a serious political setback to the top contender, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, who in 2000 led the popular movement that toppled autocratic Yugoslav ex-President Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbia’s presidency is expected to gain in importance as the post of Yugoslav president will be dismantled when the Yugoslav federation is transformed early next year.

An unidentified woman, at rear, clasps her hands in greeting as Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and his wife, Zorica Radovic, leave the polling station in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. For a second time, the presidential election was voided because too few voters went to the polls.

Kostunica denounced the 50-percent turnout requirement and claimed the overall number of eligible voters was “inflated” with dead and nonexistent people. He blamed it all on his political nemesis Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

“These elections are a sham” orchestrated by Djindjic, Kostunica said.

Djindjic, meanwhile, has said he would like to see the law changed to have the president elected by Serbia’s parliament, instead of by a popular vote.

That would give Djindjic, whose allies hold a majority in the current Serbian parliament, a chance to nominate a candidate of his choice.