Kosovo votes for new parliament as foreign aid dwindles and talks with Serbia are stalled

Kosovars cast their votes Sunday in a parliamentary election considered a key test for Prime Minister Albin Kurti as talks on normalizing ties with rival Serbia remain stalled and foreign funding for one of Europe’s poorest countries in question.

Kurti’s left-wing Vetevendosje!, or Self-Determination Movement Party, is seen as the front-runner but is not expected to win the necessary majority to govern alone, leaving open the possibility the other two contenders join ranks if he fails to form a Cabinet.

The other challengers are the Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, whose main leaders are detained at an international criminal tribunal at The Hague accused of war crimes, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, the oldest party in the country that lost much of its support after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.

The parties made big-ticket pledges to increase public salaries and pensions, improve education and health services, and fight poverty. However, they did not explain where the money would come from, nor how they would attract more foreign investment.

Ties with Serbia remain a concern

Kurti has been at odds with Western powers after his Cabinet took several steps that raised tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, including the ban on the use of the Serbian currency and dinar transfers from Serbia to Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority that depends on Belgrade’s social services and payments. The U.S., the European Union and the NATO-led stabilization force KFOR have urged the government in Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions, fearing the revival of inter-ethnic conflict.

This is the first time since independence in 2008 that Kosovo’s parliament has completed a full four-year mandate. It is the ninth parliamentary vote in Kosovo since the end of the 1998-1999 war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists that pushed Serbian forces out following a 78-day NATO air campaign. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.

The vote will determine who will lead the Kosovo in negotiations with Serbia, which stalled again last year.

Some aid funds are suspended

The EU has suspended funding for some projects and set conditions for their gradual resumption, linked to Kosovo taking steps to de-escalate tensions in the north, where most of the Serb minority lives.

Kosovo is also suffering after Washington imposed a 90-day freeze on funding for different projects through the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been key in promoting the country’s growth.

Some 2 million eligible voters will elect 120 lawmakers from 1,280 candidates from 27 political groupings. One independent candidate is also running. The Kosovar parliament has 20 seats reserved for minorities regardless of election results, 10 of which are for the Serb minority.

“I encourage all the citizens of Kosovo to use this opportunity to decide on the next four years,” Kurti said after casting his ballot.

There have been sporadic violent incidents. Prosecutors said they detained five people for trying to influence voters.

Kosovars abroad started voting on Saturday at 43 diplomatic missions. There are some 20,000 voters from the diaspora of nearly 100,000 casting ballots at the missions, and the rest by mail.

Although crucial for the region’s stability, negotiations with Serbia have not figured high on any party’s agenda.

”What can we do? We were born here. Our graves are here. It will be better, I hope. We have to come out and vote. That is our duty,” Mileva Kovacevic, a Serb resident in northern Mitrovica, said.

Kosovo, with a population of 1.6 million, is one of the poorest countries in Europe with an annual gross domestic product of less than 6,000 euros per person.

KFOR has increased its presence in Kosovo after last year’s tensions with Serbia as well as for the election.

A team of 100 observers from the EU, 18 from the Council of Europe and about 1,600 others from international or local organizations will monitor the vote.

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Associated Press writer Vojislav Stjepanovic contributed to this report.