PanARMENIAN.Net

Kosovo elections scheduled for November 17
01.09.2007 13:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The United Nations chief for Kosovo called Friday
parliamentary and local elections for November 17 amid ongoing talks
on the future status of the breakaway province in southern Serbia.

Joachim Rucker announced the date after meeting in the provincial
capital Pristina with ethnic Albanian leaders, all members of a team
negotiating the future of Kosovo, which has been under UN
administration since 1999.

The vote may increase tension in Kosovo whose 90-percent ethnic
Albanian majority hopes to gain independence from Serbia by the end of
the year, after the expected conclusion of talks on the province’s
status by December 10.

"I wish to make clear that the team of unity and I are in complete
agreement that the status process has absolute priority," Rucker said.

"I reserve the right to postpone the elections date should there be a
conflict, in particular should the holding of elections be used as an
excuse to delay status," he added.

Earlier this month an international troika – composed of
representatives of the United States, the European Union and Russia –
launched a new round of negotiations after the UN Security Council
failed to agree on "supervised independence" for Kosovo, as proposed
by a UN envoy.

Serbia staunchly opposes any kind of independence, offering the widest
possible autonomy for the province, which it considers the cradle of
Serb history and culture.

Legislative and local elections were expected to be held by November
in accordance with the constitutional framework established by the UN
mission, which anticipates elections every three years.

The 120-seat parliament should then elect a new president and Prime
Minister.

One hundred parliamentary members will be elected through the
proportional electoral system, while a remaining 20 seats will be
reserved for the national minorities, Serbs and other non-Albanians.

For the first time voters will also directly elect mayors in 30
Kosovo’s towns.

The province has been managed by a United Nations mission since 1999,
when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces waging a brutal
crackdown on ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo has held four elections since the war. Municipal elections
were held in 2000 and 2003, and general elections in 2001 and 2004.

The electorate at the 2004 vote was around 1.3 million, according to
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the
AFP reports.