[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Partial results give Rugova's LDK lead in Kosovo capital (AFP, 29 Oct 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.voila.co.uk/News/afp/int/001029054315.7lqdoryb.html

Partial results give Rugova's LDK lead in Kosovo capital 

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AFP) - - Ibrahim Rugova's moderate nationalist
Kosovo Democratic League (LDK) was leading late Saturday in the race to
win control of Pristina's municipal council, sources close to the vote
count said.
     The LDK had won 59 percent of the first 3,439 votes counted at one
of the capital's largest polling stations, leaving the Kosovo Democratic
Party (PDK) of ex-guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci trailing with 24
percent.
     The coalition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) of Ramush
Haradinaj was coming in third with nine percent, the source said.
     Rugova's LDK is particularly strong among the urban middle class
and is expected to do well in Pristina, according to international
observers.
     It was Kosovo's ethnic Albanians' first democratic test Saturday,
and they turned out en masse to vote in their first post-war election in
an atmosphere of quiet celebration.
     So many voters turned out early that the election's OSCE organisers
at first struggled to cope with the numbers, and in some polling
stations, voting continued after the official 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) closing
time until late into the night, election director Jeff Fischer told
reporters.
     In contrast to most municipal elections, the key issues were not
refuse collection or street ighting but the Kosovo Albanians' need to
prove they could hold a peaceful, politically mature election.
     Kosovo's 100,000-strong Serb minority boycotted the poll, rendering
the result irrelevant in areas where they form the vast majority of the
population and in which Kouchner said he would appoint unelected Serbs
to councils. 
     Militant and moderate Kosovar leaders alike hailed the vote as the
precursor of fully-fledged statehood, a dream nurtured during 10 years
of oppression by ousted Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. 
     Ibrahim Rugova, dubbed the "Gandhi of the Balkans" because of his
longtime passive resistance to Serb rule, described Saturday's poll as
an "important step" towards independence. 
     Rugova, 56, is not a candidate, preferring to keep his powder dry
for a possible presidential poll next year. 
     "We fought to see this day, to be able to vote freely as citizens
of Kosovo. I am confident that Kosovo will be independent soon," he
said. 

©2000 AFP All rights reserved.


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