BELGRADE (AP) - Former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, who won most votes at two failed presidential elections in Serbia last year, will not run again in a vote in November, a top aide said in comments published yesterday.

Kostunica’s deputy, Dragan Marsicanin, told yesterday’s daily Blic that “there is no chance that Kostunica will put up his candidacy” for the November presidential balloting, which will be the third attempt since last fall to elect a president.

Two previous presidential elections last year were invalidated because of low turnout. Serbian election law requires that more than half of the electorate cast ballots.

Kostunica’s decision to boycott the November vote could lead to another election failure. The former Yugoslav president, a moderate nationalist, is believed to be the most popular politician in Serbia, and his boycott is likely to discourage Serbs from going to the polls.

Kostunica was part of a pro-democracy bloc that ousted former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, but Kostunica later split with the rest of the coalition over a number of issues.

Marsicanin said that an early general election is the only way out of the political crisis. “I hope that public pressure...will lead to early general elections,” Marsicanin told Blic.