Dictators are never removed through election. Fortunately, the diplomat, the British president of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly, was mistaken. Sometimes it is dictators, far removed from their people and surrounded by sycophants, who fool themselves into thinking they can win elections. The Sandinistas made that mistake in Nicaragua. Now Slobodan Milosevic, the indicted war criminal of Yugoslavia, also has miscalculated.
Democracy has a way of poking up in the most unlikely places.
Don't get us wrong. There's no question that, in the presidential election staged Sunday, Mr. Milosevic cheated on his own behalf. He just may not have cheated enough. Despite almost universal predictions that the dictator would hold on to power one way or another, an astonishing three-quarters of Serbia's electorate turned out to vote. According to all reliable indications, they voted overwhelmingly against Mr. Milosevic.