Opposition Party Leads in Kosovo Poll

18 11 2007 Pristina _ Preliminary results published by independent observers early on Sunday morning show the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, leading after Saturday’s parliamentary elections.

As predicted in previous opinion polls, the PDK, headed by former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci, looks set to have the biggest number of seats in the new parliament, with a projected total of around 34 percent of the vote.

The preliminary results were published by the civil society coalition “Democracy in Action”. The results are based on votes counted from 1756 out of 2323 polling stations.

“Democracy in Action” will publish preliminary results for the municipal and mayoral elections, which were held along with the parliamentary election, later today.

According to the preliminary parliamentary election results, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, which has led the governing coalition until now, remains on 22 percent of the vote. It is followed by the Alliance for a New Kosovo, AKR, a new party led by controversial businessman Behgjet Pacolli, which has 12 percent, and the Democratic League of Dardania, LDD, led by former LDK member Nexhat Daci, which has 10 percent.

The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, led by Ramush Haradinaj, has around 9 percent of the vote according to the preliminary results.

Only about 45 percent of the 1.5 million registered voters exercised their right to vote, the lowest turnout in Kosovo ever.

The elections – the fifth to be held since 1999 – took place without any major incidents being reported, although a majority of the Serb population in the UN administered territory boycotted the polls.

Since the two major parties, the PDK and the LDK, have already ruled out the possibility of going into coalition with the AKR or the LDD, a PDK-LDK coalition now seems unavoidable.

Final official results are scheduled to be certified by the UN administration in Kosovo, UNMIK, on December 4. The assembly will then have 30 days to hold its first session. In view of current political efforts to resolve Kosovo’s status, observers believed the parties will scramble to form a coalition so that a new government can be formed in order to preside over Kosovo’s transition to a new status. (BIRN)