PRISTINA, Kosovo - Incumbent Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has claimed victory in Kosovo's first general election since the province declared independence from Serbia, as an independent exit poll showed his Democratic Party of Kosovo 6 percentage points ahead of its rivals.
"This is a vote for a European Kosovo," Thaci told The Associated Press on Sunday. "It is a referendum for good governance."
According to the exit poll, conducted by Kosovo-based Gani Bobi Center, Thaci won 31 per cent of the vote, with former coalition partners Democratic League of Kosovo trailing at 25 percent. If the results are confirmed it means Thaci will have the upper hand in forming a government. Official results are expected Monday.
A newcomer to Kosovo's politics, former student leader Albin Kurti, won 17 per cent of the vote, according to the poll, and former rebel leader Ramush Haradinaj's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo won 12 per cent.
Kurti advocates Kosovo's unification with Albania and opposes any talks with Serbia. Such talks are a condition for Serbia and Kosovo to move closer to membership in the European Union.
The vote was held amid hopes by majority ethnic Albanians to improve Kosovo's struggling economy, as well as a minority Serb vote that has highlighted the divisions between the ethnic communities. Most Serbs broke with tradition and came out to vote in areas surrounded by ethnic Albanians. But Serbs in Kosovo's north -- where they form a majority -- shunned the vote after a series of violent attacks aimed at intimidating potential voters.
Officials said polling stations in Kosovo's north closed three hours ahead of time for security reasons.
Serbia called for Kosovo's Serb minority to boycott the vote to protest the province's declaration of independence, which Serbia does not recognize as valid. The call deepened fears that Kosovo could split into a Serb north and an ethnic Albanian south, something that would run counter to decades of efforts by the West to calm ethnic tensions in the region.
The boycott is likely to weaken Pristina's claim over the territory in upcoming EU-brokered talks with Serbia. The region is patrolled by NATO peacekeepers and EU police, but is run as a fiefdom by local Serb leaders picked by Belgrade, the Serbian capital.
Some 1.6 million voters were eligible to vote and 29 political parties, coalitions and citizens' initiatives were seeking to enter Kosovo's 120-seat parliament. Ten of the seats were reserved for minority Serbs.
In confidential cables published by the WikiLeaks website this week, U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Christopher Dell warned partition would "reopen the Pandora's Box of ethnic conflict that defined the 1990s."
Thaci was in charge of the coalition government that declared Kosovo independent from Serbia in 2008. Since then, Kosovo has struggled to establish itself as an independent country.
So far 70 countries, including the U.S. and most EU nations, have recognized Kosovo as an independent state.
Despite a top UN court ruling earlier this year that Kosovo's secession did not violate international law, Serbia's diplomatic offensive arguing Kosovo's secession could inspire similar separatist moves around the world has discouraged some countries from recognizing it, notably Russia and China.
