Kosovo votes in historic poll

0
134

PRISTINA: Kosovo voted Sunday in its first elections since declaring independence in 2008, with many voters angered to find themselves still among Europe’s poorest citizens.
Police reported theats to minority Serb voters in the north of the overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian territory when shots were fired into an empty building. The electoral commission put turnout across the territory at over 11 percent shortly before midday, and there were no other reports of violence.
In Pristina, handfuls of people lined up outside polling stations throughout the city in clear weather.
Goran Zdravkovic, a Serb member of the electoral commission, told reporters that the 40,000 Serbs in North Kosovo were maintaining a total boycott of the vote with not a single ballot cast in the five hours of voting before noon (1100 GMT). However, Serbs in enclaves in central Kosovo, accounting for two-thirds of the 120,000 Serb population, were reported to be turning out in large numbers.
Opinion polls ahead of the vote showed support for Prime Minister Hashim Thaci’s PDK party at 30 percent, just two percent ahead of its main rival the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), led by Pristina mayor Isa Mustafa. Thaci looked relaxed in a leather jacket as he cast his vote in a elementary school in Pristina accompanied by his wife and his young son.
“Kosovo is voting today for a European future, for visa liberalisation and (…) and integration into the European Union and the United Nations,” he told a throng of journalists.
Many in the 1.6 million strong electorate are disillusioned with the current leadership with Thaci’s reputation hurt by a string of corruption scandals involving party officials. More than 10 years after the war between the independence-seeking Albanian majority and forces loyal to then Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, Kosovo remains one of the poorest regions in Europe with nearly half the population living below the poverty line.