Kosovo’s first parliamentary elections

Kosovo’s first parliamentary elections as an independent state unfolded on Sunday as a tight race between the two ruling parties that declared the territory’s secession from Serbia in February 2008. Hashim Thaci, prime minister since 2007 and a former guerrilla leader, called early elections after his Democratic Party of Kosovo quarrelled with the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) over their power-sharing deal. Voter turnout had reached 34.1 per cent among 1.6m eligible voters by 3.30pm local time, more than half way through the voting day, said Valdete Daka, chief election commissioner. The European Union hopes for a stable coalition soon in the mainly ethnic Albanian breakaway state, so that renewed negotiations with Serbia can begin by early next year. The EU hopes both states can eventually become members. Only 72 UN member states and 22 of the EU’s 27 members have recognised Kosovo. The latest opinion polls had put Mr Thaci’s party only narrowly ahead, with 30 per cent support compared with 28 per cent for its now bitter rival, the LDK. A new party leader, Isa Mustafa, replaced Fatmir Sejdiu, the LDK leader forced to resign as Kosovo’s president in September over a constitutional challenge by Mr Thaci’s allies. With neither frontrunner close to gaining an outright majority, Mr Thaci’s opponents hoped for high turnout as the best way to tip the balance against him. Turnout above 50 per cent – as opposed to the apathetic 42 per cent at the last, pre-independence polls – would leave the race wide open, said LDK advisers and independent analysts. Ramush Haradinaj, another ex-guerrilla party leader and pre-independence prime minister, has been in detention in The Hague for a retrial on war crimes charges.