Kosovo votes with hopes for independence

Kosovo’s voters were choosing a new parliament today they hope will deliver independence from Serbia.

Polls opened at 6am and voters withstood low temperatures to line up outside polling stations in the third vote for the legislature since the province came under UN and Nato control in 1999, after the last in a string of wars that shattered Yugoslavia.

Voters have watched with increasing scepticism as their leaders have failed in two years of plodding negotiations to achieve independence from Serbia.

In the meantime, the economy is in shambles, jobs are scarce and power cuts are plentiful.

“I’m voting for a safer future, but I’m not expecting miracles” said Dea Mula, an ethnic Albanian student. “I’d like to see independence declared, although I can’t be sure when that might happen,” she said.

About 1.5 million people are eligible to elect a new provincial parliament; the party that gets the most seats in the 120-member legislature will form a government and name a prime minister. Voters will also choose local councils and municipal mayors.

Two years of negotiations between Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders and the Serbian government over the province’s status have made little progress. The latest effort is being mediated by representatives from the United States, Russia and the European Union, who have a deadline of December 10 to report back to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In a further blow to the public’s confidence, some of Kosovo’s leaders have recently sought to move back from promises for an immediate declaration of independence if no deal is reached by the deadline.

Who becomes prime minister is not likely to greatly influence a decision on a declaration, however, because all of Kosovo’s main political parties are represented on the negotiating team.

Kosovo’s dwindling Serb minority, as in past elections, is expected to boycott the vote, obeying calls from Serbia’s leadership to shun the poll.

There are concerns, however, over the growing impatience of Kosovo’s two million ethnic Albanians. Groups of masked and armed men have appeared recently, threatening to fight if the province does not become independent.

During the three-week election campaign, politicians – realising worn-out promises of independence would profit them little – attacked each other over issues such as economic recovery and strengthening rule of law in a notoriously crime-ridden corner of Europe.