Pristina - According to the first official preliminary
results of the Kosovo elections released on Monday, former guerrilla
politician Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) is the
clear victor with 36 per cent of the votes cast on Saturday.
Though the preliminary results confirmed the PDK victory, the
final official tallies were not expected for another ten days.
The win for PDK ousts Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu's Democratic
League of Kosovo (LDK), the largest party in the southern Serbian
province.
The preliminary results stated that the LDK ended up with 21 per
cent of the vote, with the drop in popularity correlating heavily
with the fact that the Kosovo independence promised by the party has
yet to be obtained.
However, the LDK is expected to form the government coalition
along with the PDK.
Thaqi called on Monday for the swift formation of a stable
government coalition in light of the approaching deadline of talks
regarding the breakaway Serbian province's future status.
Status negotiations led by an international troika of mediators
from the United States, European Union and Russia are ongoing between
Belgrade and Pristina.
The turnout for Saturday's elections was a record low of just 40
to 45 per cent of the electorate, which analysts attribute to
Kosovo's elusive independence, along with other problems such as
staggering unemployment and poverty rates.
The Serbian minority community in Kosovo largely boycotted the
elections on the recommendation of Belgrade, which does not recognize
Kosovo's elections or political leaders.
Some 50,000 Serbs in the northern enclave of Kosovska Mitrovica
and several tens of thousands of others scattered elsewhere in the
province fear that they would be driven out of an independent Kosovo
by the overhelming ethnic Albanian majority.
Belgrade wants to retain sovereignty of the province which has
since 1999 only nominally been Serbian. Kosovo's Albanian majority
expects nothing less than independence once the deadline for the
talks expires on December 10.
Thaqi has since the elections reiterated Pristina's intentions of
proclaiming independence unilaterally, shortly after December 10.
Kosovo has been under United Nations administration since a NATO-
led bombing to end ethnic conflicts pushed Serbian forces out of the
province in 1999.
Saturday's elections were the third since a UN administration and
a NATO peacekeeping force assumed control over Kosovo.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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