Kosovo's President Ibrahim Rugova has declared victory in a general election marred by a Serb boycott and unlikely to change the tense province's political landscape.
Saturday's elections, overshadowed by the refusal of the vast majority of Serbs to vote in ethnic-Albanian-dominated Kosovo, dealt a blow to international efforts to forge a multiethnic society there.
Serb leaders in Kosovo and Serbia proper had called the boycott, saying the UN and NATO have failed to create an environment where Serbs could live safely.
Preliminary results were not expected until late yesterday and final official results a week later.
But Rugova claimed on Sunday that his Democratic League of Kosovo party had garnered more than 50 percent of the vote, retaining its position as the main party. He said the elections demonstrated "the commitment of Kosovars to strengthening an independent country and a democratic society" and again called for independence.
Ibrahim Makolli from the Pristina-based Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms said the Democratic Party of Kosovo came in second with 27 percent, followed by the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo with 8 percent. Both are led by former ethnic Albanian rebel leaders.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians -- who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people -- viewed the elections as a means to further their goal of securing independence. Kosovo Serbs and Belgrade want the province to remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the successor union to Yugoslavia.
A projection released around midnight indicated that none of the ethnic Albanian parties could govern alone, echoing the previous election three years ago.
Officials did not specify how many Serbs cast ballots Saturday but said their turnout was very low. Overall turnout was estimated at 53 percent, down from 64 percent. There appeared to be disenchantment also in the ranks of ethnic Albanians unhappy with the progress made in the province since the end of the 1998 to 1999 Kosovo War, because international and local officials have failed to address the dire economic situation. An estimated 60 percent unemployment rate has exacerbated political and economic woes.
The election came seven months after mobs of ethnic Albanians attacked Serbs and their property in riots that killed 19 people and injured more than 900 others. The violence was the worst since the end of the war.
Lawmakers elected Saturday are likely to conduct UN-led talks on Kosovo's future status expected to begin mid-next year if the province makes progress in areas such as the rule of law and protection of minorities.
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