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Kosovars vote in historic election to choose legislature

Kosovo voted yesterday in a milestone election giving the UN-run Yugoslav province self-governing powers two and a half years after NATO bombs ended heavy-handed Serbian rule.

In a vote the Albanian majority hopes -- and many minority Serbs fear -- will move the territory closer to independence, its people will elect a 120-seat legislative assembly which in turn will choose a president and government.

In a clear sign of their contrasting enthusiasm, Albanians in the Kosovo capital Pristina queued to cast ballots in the cold while clearly fewer people were voting in the Serb-dominated northern part of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica.

"I came early because this is the first time in my life that I'm voting freely for the government and state of Kosovo," said Azis Bujupi, 75, an ethnic Albanian in Pristina. "It is an extraordinary feeling."

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which organizes the vote, reported a steady turnout.

"Inside and outside Kosovo the flow in the stations has been quite steady," OSCE spokeswoman Claire Trevena said.

But a Serbian election monitoring body said turnout in Serb areas of Kosovo and elsewhere in Yugoslavia had been less than 5 percent of the electorate three hours after voting began.

"The only conclusion that we can have at this point is that the response is very poor," said spokesman Marko Blagojevic of the Center for Free Elections and Democracy in Belgrade.

About 1.25 million people are eligible to vote, including Kosovo Serb refugees who fled in fear of Albanian reprisals when Yugoslav forces withdrew in 1999.

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