Kosovo PM claims election victory and hails participation of Serbs

DANIEL McLAUGHLIN

KOSOVAN PRIME minister Hashim Thaci’s party has claimed victory in the first local elections held in independent Kosovo, and hailed the participation of the fledgling state’s beleaguered Serb minority.

Rival parties disputed Mr Thaci’s claim to have secured 20 of 36 local councils, amid repeated delays to the announcement of final results.

“We all have risen above party and ethnic flags, uniting around the flag of Kosovo state in order to win, and we have won,” Mr Thaci told his Democratic Party of Kosovo. “The victory of our party is also a referendum for our good governance in the republic of Kosovo.”

The former separatist rebel, whose forces fought with Serb troops in a 1998 to 1999 war, added that he appreciated “very much participation of all citizens, in particular Serbs of Kosovo”.

International monitors gave broad approval to the conduct of the election, which was seen as an important test of Kosovo’s democracy and stability less than two years after it declared independence from Serbia following nine years of UN administration.

“Albeit with some imperfections, the election process . . . took place in an overall peaceful and good-natured atmosphere with considerable voter participation,” a delegation from the European Parliament said in a statement.

No serious incidents of fraud or intimidation were reported on polling day, after a campaign in which Mr Thaci’s convoy was stoned and a rival candidate escaped a gun attack unharmed.

“The municipal and mayoral elections . . . met many of the international standards for elections,” said Darko Aleksov, head of an international monitoring mission.

The greatest speculation in the run-up to the vote surrounded how many Serbs would heed calls from Belgrade for a boycott. In the event, a split appeared in the community: almost all Serbs in their stronghold of northern Kosovo stayed away, but a greater-than-expected number of Serbs in several enclaves further south voted.

While Serbia denounced the poll in what it calls its own “province” of Kosovo, moderate local politician Oliver Ivanovic said it sent a “clear political signal” that there was a “crack between the [Kosovan] Serbian people and the government in Belgrade”.