Ex-rebel leader Thaqi declares win in Kosovo elections (2nd Roundup)

Nov 17, 2007, 23:08 GMT

Pristina - The opposition leader, a former guerrilla politician Hashim Thaqi, was heading toward a victory in Kosovo parliamentary elections Saturday amid a surprisingly low turnout, according early unofficial figures.

Thaqi's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) had won 35 per cent of the votes with around half of the ballots counted, the Democracy in Action alliance of non-governmental organizations said.

Though apparent winners, PDK would have to forge a coalition, most likely with the outgoing ruling Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) of President Fatmir Sejdiu, which had 22 per cent of the votes.

The newcomer Alliance New Kosovo (AKR), founded by millionaire businessman Behgjet Pacolli in 2006, came in third with 12 per cent of the votes.

The Albanians, making up 90 per cent of the 2.1 million Kosovars, want their leaders to keep their promise and declare independence in a short order.

Virtually all Albanian politicians in Kosovo said that the upcoming assembly would declare independence after December 10, when ongoing, futile talks with Serbia are scheduled to end.

Serbia, which is desperately trying to hold onto sovereignty over the unwilling Kosovo, has ordered the Serbs in the province to boycott Saturday's election.

The call for the boycott was fully obeyed and very few Serbs ventured through hostile glares of their compatriots to cast ballots at polling stations.

But even with the boycott accounted for, the turnout was surprisingly low, between 40 and 45 per cent. There are some 1.5 million registered voters in the breakaway province.

The turnout among Albanians was low owing to disillusionment over the failed promise of independence, analysts said. Official results are not expected before Monday, but DPK already declared victory.

Albanian leaders are however expected to huddle quickly to forge a working coalition in time for the December 10 end of the talks with Serbia.

A grand coalition of DPK and LDK was a likely outcome, signaling the monolithic position of Albanians regarding independence.

The Albanian leaders are now hoping to get a clear signal from the United States to go ahead with the declaration of secession from Serbia.

Some 50,000 Serbs, huddled in the northern enclave of Kosovska Mitrovica along the boundary with Serbia, as well as the few tens of thousands of others scattered elsewhere in Kosovo, fear that they would be persecuted if the province becomes independent.

Apart from voting for the 120 representatives in parliament, Kosovars, Serbs included, also had the opportunity to elect local authorities and mayors in 30 municipalities.

Now through the boycott, the Serbs lost control over the five municipalities with mixed population in which they are a majority.

In the Mitrovica enclave there are hardly any Albanians, which reflects the de facto partition of Kosovo which Belgrade encourages.

'We all know that this has to do with the positions from Belgrade ... although, at the end of the day, it's the democratic choice of people to vote or not,' the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ambassador Tim Guldimann said in Pristina.

Belgrade is not recognizing Kosovo's elected authorities and has been increasingly hostile to them as they assumed a larger share in running the country from the UN administration over the years.

'We see that Serbs are not voting and will so not give legitimacy to elections conducted by provisional authorities in Kosovo,' said a spokesman for Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Andreja Mladenovic.

Kosovo has been administered by UN and policed by a NATO-led peacekeeping presence since 1999, when NATO ousted Belgrade's security forces to end a bloody crackdown on rebelling Albanians.

Belgrade has since retained only a nominal sovereignty over Kosovo, though it exerts strong influence among the Serbs, particularly in the Mitrovica enclave.

Saturday's elections, the third since 1999, were monitored by nearly 25,000 local and foreign observers, including the 250 from the Council of Europe.