A sigh of relief in Kosova

As Kosovan Serbs defy Belgrade's call for a total boycott of elections, obstructionism is starting to look an outmoded policy

Kosova held the first elections after independence without incident, and apparently without any loser. The new state had to choose mayors and local assemblies, and although the turnout was low at 45%, it was higher than the last elections in 2007. With 36 municipalities up for grabs, there have been prizes for all, and revellers from all parties celebrated into the night.

More notably, the new municipality of Gracanica elected Bojan Stojanovic, of the Serbian Independent Liberal party, as mayor. Few Serbs went to the polls across Kosova, but even this partial result is a welcome reversal of the outright boycott encouraged by Belgrade, and fully successful only in the north. The panoply of international actors that supervise Kosova's independence, AKA the international community, declared victory. For the first government of the Republic of Kosova, all this amount to a big triumph as well.

The picture is, as always, more complex. This happy outcome had been far from certain. In the run-up to the elections, tensions among parties, persistent rumours of fraud, and the possibility that the minority Serb population would stay home without exceptions, had created serious concerns. On election night, all the worries dissipated. The rallies under the fireworks in all major cities were spontaneous expressions of a general sense of relief, as much as organised shows of party strength.

Free of the "Albanian syndrome", as one commentator put it – that is, the contesting of every election result by rival parties in the neighbouring state of Albania – Kosova's Albanian majority felt more in tune with other liberal democracies. Spin doctors left acrimony aside and launched into early claims of victory, at times a bit confusingly. As the Democratic party (PDK) celebrated wins in 20 municipalities, and the Alliance for the Future (AAK) in 16, while the Democratic League (LDK) decisively won in the capital Pristina, one wondered whether the number of municipalities had somehow increased overnight. Obviously, runoff elections will readjust the total, but the novelty here is the smart use of media in pushing positive messages and staying in a campaign mode.

The elections were an important test for the government of Hashim Thaci, the former political leader of the Kosova Liberation Army, who since assuming office in January 2008 has had the task of ferrying the country through the difficult transition from a UN-led international administration to independence. For a mix of reasons – from economic distress to frustration with the continuing international supervision of the Republic of Kosova – in recent months Thaci's government appeared to have lost its shine. Thaci can now exhale after these elections, in which his PDK party is reported to have gained nationally. Never mind that the current vote is not comparable at all to previous ones, since mayors are elected directly, and not according to the proportional system. What's important is that there has been no significant decline.

Whether or not Belgrade is the loser of these elections remains debatable. Although the government and president of Serbia have called for a boycott, they have not done so forcefully. Perhaps they thought there was no need to overreact. Until now, there had been no sign that Kosova Serbs would follow a different path, and be willing to buy into the process of integration through decentralisation and devolution, which the Kosova constitution amply guarantees for them and other minorities.
The vote in Gracanica – as well as that in Strpce, where the turnout was much lower, but enough to force the Albanian candidate to a runoff – shows for the first time that there is potential for change in the behaviour of Kosova Serbs. The complete boycott in the north was expected, because of fears about partition. Yet, the news is that Belgrade has not been able to stop local Serbs from voting in the south of Kosova, where the Serb majority towns must cohabit with a surrounding Albanian majority territory.

In a recent meeting with the EU foreign affairs committee, Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic called those who would participate in the Kosova Republic "honest Serbs", a contemptuous term that in the past was attached to Albanians collaborating with the Milosevic regime. His attitude and his words did not go very well with the European representatives, who strive to make Kosova a "normal" country and resent the relentless obstructionism by the Serbian government. The current vote might just have shown that by looking backward rather than forward, Belgrade is out of touch with a new Kosova's reality. (Anna Di Lellio - Guardian.co.uk)