Kosovo voters focus on graft, relations with Serbia
- Last updated: October 6, 2019 | 16:30
National elections are underway in Kosovo where the main issues for the country's 1.9 million eligible voters are tackling corruption and normalising relations with Serbia which would pave the way for United Nations membership.
The voters started to cast their ballots to elect 120 lawmakers in the Balkan nation that became independent from Serbia in 2008.
The elections, the fourth since Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008, were called after Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned in July when he was summoned to appear before a war crimes court.
Haradinaj has been questioned over his role in the 1998-99 war as one of the commanders of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who fought for independence from Serbia.
With no clear front runner, the outcome of the vote is the most unpredictable in the country's short history. Kosovo's election commission said turnout by 3pm was 30 per cent.
"Voting was very easy but let’s see what our votes will bring,” said taxi driver Avdi Morina, 46, after voting in a sports hall in the capital Pristina.
"We want well-being and jobs for young people,” retired doctor Muharrem Bajrami said after casting his vote in the capital.
Opinion polls have pointed to public dissatisfaction with Haradinaj's record at the head of a three-party governing coalition which has boosted support for opposition parties.
Two of those parties, the Democratic League for Kosovo (LDK) and the nationalist, left-leaning Vetevendosje, are seen as front runners in Sunday's vote, along with the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the largest party in the current coalition.
The election is being overseen by more than 34,000 independent monitors, including 100 from the European Union.
"We have had only some minor incidents but the whole procedure that we could observe until now is without any problems,” said Viola Von Cramon, a monitor from the European Union.
Monitors from the NGO Democracy in Action said they had registered more than 80 cases of people photographing their votes.
Negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia abruptly stopped a year ago when the outgoing government imposed 100% import tariffs on goods produced in Serbia. Most, but not all, of the parties contesting the polls have said that they will abolish the tariffs but will introduce other retaliatory measures against Serbia.
The United States and the European Union see tensions between Belgrade and Pristina as a major threat to regional stability and are pushing for a normalisation of relations.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump appointed Richard Grenell, the straight-talking US ambassador to Germany, as special envoy to try to inject new energy into the talks between Belgrade and Pristina.
Twenty years after Nato bombing expelled Serbian forces, Belgrade refuses to recognise Kosovo as independent and, in concert with its ally Russia, has blocked Pristina's membership of international organisations including the United Nations.
Reuters