Record low turnout, Serb boycott mark Kosovo elections
The Saturday parliamentary and local elections in Kosovo were marked by a record low Albanian turnout and a successful Serb boycott, as less than one percent of the Serbs voted.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, November 19, 2007
According to the Central Electoral Commission, the turnout totaled just over 43 percent. Although Pristina officials and the Western media had been calling the elections an "independence vote", the final turnout is the lowest since the arrival of the international missions in the province in 1999.
"I am concerned about the low turnout, which reflects a widespread dissatisfaction of the population with the political elite", said EU's High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana.
Analysts say that the abstinence of a large number of voters is a sign of their disappointment in parties, and apathy caused by the difficult material situation, as well as empty promises of Kosovo's independence.
The Serb boycott was a complete success since less than one percent of the Kosovo Serbs decided to vote. The Serb community boycotted the elections, thus refusing to give legitimacy to the Kosovo Assembly, which has announced it will make a unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence. Also, the Serbs are dissatisfied with security and the conditions they live in, which are mostly on the verge of humanitarian disaster.
According to preliminary results, the winner with 34 percent of votes is the hardline Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), led by Hashim Thaci, who announced his party's victory. However, Thaci's party lacks the majority that would allow him to form a government on his own, and will most likely have to enter a coalition with second-ranked, more moderate Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) of president Fatmir Sejdiu, which won some 23 percent of votes.
Even though the deal on the new coalition, according to Kosovo sources, has been struck long before the polls, the fresh agreement seems more like an unwanted marriage, bearing in mind open animosity between their leaders in the past. Back in 1998, the late leader of LDK Ibrahim Rugova called Thaci's Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) "a child of Serbian secret services", opening the way for lasting political clashes, open threats and several attempts to kill Rugova.
Construction mogul Bexhet Pacolli and his New Kosovo Alliance won 14 percent.
The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, led by war crimes indictee Ramush Haradinaj and the Democratic League of Dardania of Nexhat Daci came fourth and fifth with 10 percent.
Kosovo reformers of the ORA party, led by Veton Surroi, failed to pass the five percent electoral threshold.
Thaci, seen by analysts as the future Kosovo prime minister, was the wartime commander of the notorious Drenik group of the Kosovo Liberation Army, suspected of numerous crimes against Serbs and disloyal Albanians.
Among its crimes are the burning of victims in a crematorium in the village of Klecka, the Volujak pit, murders in the Lapusnik camp, attacks on Bica, Klina, Kijevo and Orahovac. Thaci himself, whose wartime nickname was "Gjarperi" or "The Snake", is being accused by the Serbian authorities of the murder of three policemen in the village of Glogovac in 1997. Responding to an arrest warrant issued by Belgrade, Thaci was arrested in Hungary in June 2003, but was released upon UNMIK's intervention.
The Kosovo Liberation Army is believed to be responsible for over 1,800 armed attacks between 1995 and 1998, which left 364 people of all nationalities dead and 605 wounded. The group also carried out 25 attacks on settlements and facilities housing Serb refugees from Croatia. Between January 1 and March 24, 1999, 586 attacks were carried out, most of them during the talks in Rambouillet.
According to the report by the German intelligence agency BND, published by the Berliner Zeitung,
Hashim Thaci is one of the four heads of Kosovo Albanian mafia who have no interest in a rule-of-law state, but have the goal to turn Serbian Kosovo province into a crime state and are using their political leverage to control the underground forces in order to strengthen their personal interests and create links in politics, economy and justice.
According to the German daily, Hashim Thaci, Agim Ceku, Ramush Haradinaj and Xhavit Haliti cover the "entire spectrum of criminal, political and military activities," and are mainly involved in the smuggling of arms, drugs and cigarettes, illegal fuel trade, people smuggling and extortion. German intelligence agency reported that they control mafia gangs in the Drenica region.