KOSOVO: Kosovo Serbs vote in Serbian general elections, Kosovo Albanians dismiss Serbian elections

Record ID: 863332

  • Title: KOSOVO: Kosovo Serbs vote in Serbian general elections, Kosovo Albanians dismiss Serbian elections
  • Date: 11th May 2008
  • Summary: (W2) PRISTINA, KOSOVO (MAY 11, 2008) (REUTERS) WIDE OF STREET SCENE PEOPLE ON STREETS WIDE OF NEWSPAPER KIOSK/ NEWSPAPERS ON SALE
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2008 13:00
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  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACKAZHKHA5NJ7NT7HG31E9NK32
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  • Story Text: Pristina streets were largely empty early on Sunday (May 11) morning with just a few people venturing out to collect newspapers.
    Kosovo Serbs meanwhile began voting in Serbian parliamentary and local elections. Tens of thousands of Serbs in the former Serbian province are expected to take part, ignoring the Albanian majority's Western-backed declaration of independence in February.
    Kosovo's parliament declared independence from Serbia on Feb 17, and it even came out with a statement against holding local elections, but appears helpless to prevent Serbia from organising its own local elections in the territory, which the West says are illegal.
    The Albanian daily newspaper "Kosovo Sot" ran a headline "Slap in the Face", referring to the actions of Kosovo Serbs against the Kosovo government.
    Other publications, however, concentrated on different issues.

    "Simply, these elections will not help Serbs in Kosovo to improve their lives", said Auni Ahmetaj, a journalist.

    "We are a free country, we are a democratic country, those who are participating in these elections are doing it for their own internal (Serbian) reasons so therefore we are not interested in these elections at all,"
    said Ismail Gjata, a taxi driver.
    Hardline Serb leaders in Kosovo plan to establish their own assembly after Serbia's elections, deepening the new country's ethnic divide.
    The Kosovo government has said it will not use force to prevent Serbs from voting, but would not uphold any local election results.

    "The logic of the government of Kosovo is not to use force to stop them (the Serbs) but at any case we have undertaken the decision as we have proclaimed they are illegal elections and we will not allow them to create new institutions from that results," said Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister, Hajridin Kuqi.
    While the U.N. mission in Kosovo has no objection to Kosovo Serbs voting in the parliamentary election, it says the results of local elections, which officially only the United Nations and Kosovo authorities can hold, will be declared invalid.
    U.N. BITE? Serbia is divided and the two front-runners, the nationalist Radical Party and the pro-Western Democratic Party, will have to woo smaller parties to form a coalition. The West has made clear it hopes the Democrats will win.
    Some 6.7 million people are registered to vote, including the defiant Serb minority in Kosovo. Polls close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).
    Serbia lost formal control over Kosovo in 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces to halt the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.
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