Kosovo PM party leads in local election 1st round

Mon Nov 16, 2009 3:08pm EST

* Majority of contests go to run-off

* Second round to be held in one month

* Observers say elections met most international standards

(Recasts with results and observers)

By Fatos Bytyci

PRISTINA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The Kosovo prime minister's party fared best in local elections held on Sunday, the first polls since the declaration of independence from Serbia last year, preliminary Election Commission results showed.

Outright victories were announced on Monday in 16 of the 36 municipalities, and run-offs will be held in one month's time between the top two contenders in the remaining 20 towns.

Sunday's vote was a test for Kosovo, which wants to establish itself as a fully functioning democracy and gain acceptance from more countries than the 63 that have so far recognised it as an independent state.

- Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) won 5 municipalities.

- Former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo won 4 towns.

- President Fatmir Sejdiu's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) won 3 towns.

- Three municipalities will be run by two Serb mayors and one municipality by a Turkish Kosovar.

Every party promised to help local communities with roads, water and jobs, but analysts said the low turnout of 45 percent reflected many Kosovars' disappointment at their leaders' failure to reduce the 40 percent unemployment rate and improve the dismal economic prospects of one of Europe's poorest countries.

About 1.5 million people were eligible to vote.

Darko Aleksov, the head of a European network monitoring elections, said that "Kosovo met many of the international standards for elections."

But he added that voting secrecy was not always protected, and that family voting, attempts to influence voters and the presence of unauthorized persons at many polling stations were seen as weaknesses in the electoral process.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after NATO bombing drove out Serb forces and stopped the killing of ethnic Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.

Mostly Western countries have recognised Kosovo's independence but neither Serbia, its former ruler, nor Russia has done so.

Serbian leaders in Belgrade urged their ethnic kin in Kosovo not to legitimise its independence by taking part in the election, but some of the 120,000 Kosovo Serbs in the southern part of the country did vote because they will run their own municipalities.

After the war ended in 1999, elections in Kosovo were run by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Sunday's are the first polls to be organised by local authorities. (Editing by Adam Tanner and Tim Pearce)

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