[ Kosova-o ]

Preliminary results of yesterday's elections in Kosovo have been published by the civil society coalition “Democracy in Action” based on votes counted from 1756 out of 2323 polling stations - click here for an overview over the first results of the Assembly elections, the municipal and mayor elections. Turnout was very low with about 45% (8% lower than in 2004) and nearly 99% of Kosovo-Serbs boycotting the elections (a few days ago, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung criticised the election boycott as "children's games"). Check the website of the Central Election Commission for technical details on the elections and for official results (which are to be certified by  UNMIK on December 4, says BIRN).

More than ever, these elections were focused on persons and not on party programmes - the billboards showed the candidate's faces and very vage messages: LDK campaigned with the portrait of the deceased President Rugova; PDK with H. Thaci ("take pride in Kosovo"); AAK with R. Haradinaj ("we will achieve it"); AKR with B. Pacolli ("too rich to be corrupt"); ORA with V. Surroi ("become the master of the house"). While ORA has to fear not to be represented in the Assembly (there is a 5%-threshold for Kosovo-Albanian parties), the new party of the millionaire B. Pacolli AKR (Alliance for a New Kosovo) could become the 3rd most important party in Kosovo (cf. background reports on Pacolli published a few days ago in the FAZ and Süddeutsche Zeitung).