KOSOVO: Thaci Promises Independence Before Year-end

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Alba Çela

PRISTINA, Nov 21 2007 (IPS) - Exit polls reveal that the elections held in Kosovo this weekend have produced a major win for the party led by the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, UÇK Alb) leader, Hashim Thaçi.

According to the electoral plan of PDK, 34-year-old Thaçi is due to become prime minister. The results of 34 percent of the vote corresponded with pre-elections polls that gave Thaçi the upper hand over other competitors. The runner up was the LDSK, which won 22 percent of the vote share.

The elections were both to Parliament and local government authorities. Roughly 1.5 million people have the right to vote in Kosovo. Some 16,000 are first time voters, reflecting the high percentage of very young people in Kosovo society.

The elections were closely followed by the OSCE mission in Kosovo, the UN interim administration, together with the Central Election Commission. Other monitors were a delegation of 150 foreign observers including six members from the European Parliament headed by German MEP Doris Pack.

The exit results were announced by a coalition of NGO observers under a joint campaign, ‘Democracy in Action’. Part of this coalition was the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED), the coordinators. It set up a media centre that closely followed the election process, and provided timely coverage, Valmir Ismaili, researcher at the KIPRED, told IPS.

The polls were widely seen as a litmus test for Kosovo’s politicians and a reality check on the situation on the ground.

"The election campaign was very quiet. Sometimes it surprised me the degree of quietness," Avni Bucolli, a lecturer of International relations at the Universum University College, told IPS. However, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) deployed additional troops to safeguard the stability of the fragile province.

The Kosovo Central Elections Committee (KCEC) estimated that voter turnout was 43-45 percent, much lower than the 2004 elections. "The low turnout is due to popular disenchantment with the political class due to the latter’s concrete lack of action towards independence and poor record in developing the economy," Bucolli explained.

Kosovo, which has been run by the UN since 1999, is legally still a Serbian province. Belgrade and Serb nationalists fiercely resist independence for the province.

Personalities and not programmes or ideological platforms dominated these elections. Every party advertised their charismatic leaders: the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), cashing in on Ibrahim Rrugova, their late leader, an icon of the Kosovo struggle for independence; the reformist party ORA marketing its charismatic intellectual Veton Surroi, a negotiator for the ‘status’ talks and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) running under the banner of Ramush Haradinaj, ex-premier and UÇK leader and fighter, who was indicted by the Hague Criminal Court for war crimes.

An interesting novelty was the participation of billionaire expat, Bexhet Pacolli whose Alliance for New Kosovo (AKR) grabbed 12 percent of the votes, according to exit polls.

Twenty seats in Kosovo’s120-seat parliament are reserved for Serbs. Serbian politicians boycotted the election process, with major parties such as, ‘The Serbian list for Kosovo and Metohia’ and ‘The National Serb Council’ staying away. The participation of the Serbian population of north Mitrovica in these elections was as low as 0.8 percent, according to Albanian media. However, key politicians in Kosovo believe the boycott was imposed from Belgrade.

"I really hope that the Serbs vote. Even if it were only 30 of them, I would salute them. You have to understand that Serbs have been put under outright psychological and even physical pressure in order not to participate in the elections," Veton Surroi, leader of political party ORA told IPS on the eve of the polls.

Surroi is a senior member of the Unity Team that negotiates the ‘status’ on behalf of the Kosovars. His party was a major loser in the elections. With only 3.4 percent of the votes cast, it will not make it beyond the minimum 5 percent – termed the threshold – required to enter Parliament. Ironically, Surroi had been one of the major supporters of the ‘threshold’ innovation in the electoral system.

Vetvendosja, a local movement that advocated immediate independence and the removal of all international bindings on Kosovo, also issued the boycott call. Albin Kurti, the leader of the movement is under house arrest.

According to a UN plan for Kosovo drafted by special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, Kosovo, should be granted internationally monitored independence with the EU taking over the large share of responsibility from NATO and the U.S. The proposal is supported by the U.S. and EU members, but it has been fiercely opposed by Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council.

Thaci has promised to declare independence immediately after Dec. 10, when the last report of the European troika of diplomats on the status negotiations process will be submitted.