Ex-guerrillas lead in Kosovo poll count

Hashim Thaci casts his ballot at a polling station in Pristina
- Dimitar Dilkoff

PRISTINA, Serbia - A party dominated by former Kosovo guerrillas who favour speedy independence was leading in parliamentary elections Saturday ahead of crucial talks on the status of the Serbian province.

The opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) of Hashim Thaci had 35 percent of the vote, according to preliminary unofficial results based on a count of 50 percent of ballots.

The ruling Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) party of President Fatmir Sejdiu had 23 percent, said Democracy In Action, a coalition of 10 non-governmental organisations involved in the official count.

Kosovo's parliamentary elections were held less than a month before the conclusion of internationally mediated talks to determine a new status for the disputed province.

A new round of the so-far deadlocked negotiations between leaders of Kosovo's independence-seeking Albanian majority and Serbia are to be held in Brussels in three days. They must be completed by December 10.

"Immediately after December 10, we will take decisions to make Kosovo an independent and sovereign country," Thaci told AFP ahead of the elections, also called to elect mayors and local councillors.

"These elections will be an additional verdict towards our destiny" of independence, President Sejdiu said after voting in central Pristina.

According to the preliminary estimates, which were based on a count of more than 2,300 booths located across Kosovo, voter turnout in Saturday's elections was at least 45 percent.

The elections, held eight years after Kosovo's war, were massively boycotted by Serbs fiercely opposed to independence.

An ethnic Albanian casts his ballot at a polling station in Pristina
- Dimitar Dilkoff

Braving icy weather and fears of renewed violence, Albanians turned out with optimism for independence following years in limbo under the management of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

"It's not important for whom I voted. I cast my ballot for independence," said Nerxhivane Dauti, an unemployed Albanian teacher in the provincial capital Pristina.

"The newly elected government, whatever political side it comes from, will be legitimised after the elections to push strongly for Kosovo's independence," the 32-year-old added.

Legally still a Serbian province, Kosovo has been run by the UN since NATO's 1999 air war ended a months-long conflict that killed an estimated 10,000 Albanians and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Voters wait to cast their ballots at a polling station in Feraje, southern Kosovo
- Robert Atanasovski

Fearing reprisal attacks, around two-thirds of its pre-war Serb population has since fled into Serbia proper.

On Saturday, most of the 100,000 Serbs who have remained in the province heeded the Serbian government's call for them to boycott the polls.

Belgrade and Serb nationalists fiercely oppose independence for Kosovo, which they consider the cradle of their nation's history, culture and religion.

"Serbs are not voting in order to avoid giving legitimacy to elections organised by the provisional institutions in Kosovo," the party of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told Beta news agency in reference to Kosovo's parliament.

NATO's 16,000 peacekeepers were bolstered by hundreds of reinforcements before the polls involving 1.5 million voters.

The elections were largely peaceful in spite of earlier fears of violence and several incidents on the eve and morning of the polls.

A member of the election commission helps a voter at a polling station in Pristina
- Ermal Meta

At stake were places in the 120-seat provincial assembly, 100 of them reserved for independence-seeking parties representing Albanians who comprise at least 90 percent of Kosovo's two million population. The rest are set aside for Serbs and other minorities.

While likely to be short of an outright majority, Thaci, a former leader of the political wing of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), is tipped to head a broad coalition government.

Agim Ceku, a former KLA commander who had filled the role of prime minister since his predecessor resigned almost two years ago, did not stand in the elections.

Some 150 Council of Europe observers and 25,000 local monitors watched for irregularities.

In a press conference, UNMIK chief Joachim Ruecker praised the conduct of the polls, which he said had shown "the maturity" of the Kosovo electorate.

The first official results in Kosovo's third general elections since its 1998-1999 war are expected early next week.