Kosovo

Election Summary

Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) led in the province's 23 October assembly elections, but failed to win an outright majority. As a result, the party was obliged to seek partners for a coalition government. The leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ramush Haradinaj, will become the next prime minister under an agreement reached with the LDK.

Due to errors in the vote tally, the Central Election Commission ordered a recount. The final results, released on Wednesday (3 November), showed that the LDK won 45.42 per cent of the vote and will retain its 47-seat representation in the province's 120-member assembly, in which 20 seats are reserved for representatives of Kosovo's minorities. Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo came in second with 28.9 per cent of the vote, entitling it to 30 parliamentary seats -- four more than it won in the 2001 election.

The AAK finished third with 8.4 per cent of the vote, winning 9 seats. ORA, a new party founded by publisher and journalist Veton Surroi, came in fourth with 6.23 per cent of the vote and 7 parliamentary seats. A total of six other Kosovo Albanian parties won the remaining seven of the 100 multiethnic seats in the assembly.

Twelve entities were eligible to contest the 20 seats set aside for Kosovo's minorities, the OSCE statement said Wednesday. Of the ten seats for Kosovo Serb representatives, eight are to be taken by the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija and two by the Citizens' Initiative of Serbia. The Bosniak entity, Vakat, has taken 3 seats, including 2 set-aside seats. The SDA has taken the other seat set aside for the Bosniak community.

The Turkish party, the Kosovo Democratic Turkish Party (KDTP), won a total of three seats, including the two seats set aside for their community.

The New Democratic Initiative of Kosovo (IRDK) has taken two of the four seats reserved for the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities, while the Albanian Ashkali Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDAK) and the United Roma Party of Kosovo (PREBK)

The one Gorani seat was won by the Citizen's Initiative of Gora (GIG).

The turnout, according to the final results, was 53.57 per cent. Nearly 660,000 of all 1.3 million registered voters took part in the vote. However, turnout among the Kosovo Serb community was less than 1 per cent. The majority of the group's eligible voters refused to cast a ballot, following calls for a boycott from Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, other Belgrade officials and leaders of the Serbian Orthodox Church.