Kosovo elections scheduled for November 17

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.