Kosovo: Birth of a nation?

Elections in Kosovo have changed the agenda - independence is now the most likely medium–term outcome. Parliamentary polling next year will see a new battle for votes, but all parties agree on the aim.

The World Today
5 minute READ

Although the October 28 municipal election in Kosovo was only a local poll, and in most countries would attract no attention whatsoever, the absence of normal political life there for so many years meant that it came under major international scrutiny.

A massive Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) presence at polling stations presided over an equally high eighty percent turnout of the Albanian majority. There were also candidates from the Bosniac, Gorani, Turkish and Ashkalia–Roma minorities, but the process was boycotted by the 90,000 Kosovo Serbs, and Serbophone Roma, both as voters and candidates.

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