Opinion: Will Serbs End Tradition of Kosovo Election Boycotts? Election Special Next Friday December 10- 16, 2010 Issue No. 53 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1 ELECTION SPECIAL Turkey Kosovo and the Election Balkans Profile > page 3 Enver Hoxhaj, the NEWS Kosovar education minis- Kosovo Wants EU ter, claims his then Visa Deal Before Turkish counterpart, Serbia Talks Huseyin Celik, suggested Kosovo alter its negative > page 8 portrayal of the Ottomans INSIDE PRISHTINA as ferocious invaders. Acupuncture See Page 9-15 Victors Face Coalition Wrangle After Kosovo Election Democratic Party of Kosovo is on course for a narrow win in Sunday’s poll but whether it will be able to form a viable coalition is far from clear. adversaries. according to most polls, while the Balkan Insight that the LDK was > page 18 By Lawrence Marzouk Election polling, accepted by all Democratic League of Dardania, running close behind the PDK parties as reliable, is not available looks set to lose its seats. according to its internal polls. NGO FOCUS olls suggest that the in Kosovo. But a range of internal These figures are in line with Krenar Gashi, acting head of Democratic Party of Kosovo, political and institutional surveys the only poll that has published its the Kosovar Institute for Policy FIDES: Building a PPDK, of outgoing Prime that Prishtina Insight has results in full and provided the Research and Development, a Minister Hashim Thaci, is set to obtained suggest that the PDK is total number of interviewees. This think tank, said that the result Philanthropic win Sunday’s general election by a likely to come first with around 30 survey, by Kosovo’s Foreign Police would depend on the turnout. narrow margin, but questions per cent of the vote. Club, put the PDK on 30 per cent, Hard-core voters opt for parties Society remain on whether it will be able These surveys put the the LDK on 28 per cent, “based on traditional regional, to put together a viable coalition. Democratic League of Kosovo, Vetevendosje on 16, AAK on 12, the tribal and family ties,” he said. > page 21 Analysts believe that much will LDK, in second place, and the New Kosovo Alliance on 7, Fryma “It’s the other voters who will depend on the turnout, with a low nationalist Vetevendosje, or the e Re on 6 and the League of determine the final outcome, so if number of voters favouring the AAK, third, with between 10 to 18 Dardania on 1. the turnout exceeds 60 per cent, PDK. per cent. The same polls put the The results have, however, been new parties stand to benefit more, Another factor is whether the New Kosovo Alliance, AKR, in questioned by the AAK and the as they focus on new voters and on Kosovo’s only English-language Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, fourth place. Democratic League of Dardania people who did not vote in the pre- newspaper is available: AAK, led by Ramush Haradinaj, A new party, Fryma e Re, looks who have noted the organisation’s vious elections,” Gashi added. can be persuaded to form an likely to cross the threshold of 5 close ties to the LDK. Delivered to unlikely alliance with its former per cent to enter parliament, A senior PDK official also told continues page 5 Your Door Hippo Swims Free in Empty Wheat Reserves From Newsstands Flood Waters Push up Kosovo Bread Price across Kosovo A hippo in Montenegro is enjoying a stay Bread prices have increased by 30 per Sent To in the wild after being temporarily cent at the beginning of December, despite Your Inbox released by zoo owners because of rising Kosovo government’s plans to keep prices flood waters. stable by keeping a wheat reserve. Nikica, an eleven-year-old hippopotamus A law passed in October gave the govern- From who lives in a private zoo near Lake ment the green light to begin hording our partners Skadar, was released after ... wheat in order to protect... news page 7 business page 6 see page 16 for more info Y M is supported by: C K 2 December 10-16, 2010 Election Special Editor’s Word Kosovo Election Profile Drita round 1.6million people in previous elections, the con- will be held roughly according up by the President of the out of an estimated pop- duct of politicians will also be to the electoral law in place in Republic using powers invested Aulation of 2million are closely scrutinised. 2007 and 2009, with a few in him by the constitu- eligible to vote on December 12, crucial differences. tion. Every citizen although hundreds of thou- The voting system: Specifically, the aged 18 or over By Lawrence Marzouk sands of registered Kosovars system is now a is eligible to live outside of the country and Kosovo is a parliamentary wholly open-list vote. thousands of dead people democracy with a unicameral system, with Kosovo is a remain on the electoral roll. parliament. The Assembly of voters able to single elec- the Republic of Kosovo com- select up to five toral dis- ’m not sure who said that you campaign What is at stake? prises 120 deputies, selected on of their pre- trict, with no in poetry and govern in prose, but in the basis of proportional repre- ferred candi- constituency IKosovo’s case, the electioneering for the The vote is a major test of dates from a list system. This sentation across the country, December 12 poll has been more like ad-lib Kosovo’s young institutions, bar 20 seats which are reserved of up to 110 of means that street rap than Keats or Baudelaire. desperate to progress towards for minority representatives. their party of choice. although many of Mostly adversarial, almost always impro- NATO and EU membership, There is a five percent thresh- The quota of a third of the larger parties vised and usually meaningless, the type of and its politicians’ commit- old for non-minority parties to the “minority gender” – in have regional strongholds campaigning in this country is not worthy of ment to democracy. This is the pass in order to enter parlia- practice, women – on both the and poll badly in other parts of its people, in my view. first general election to be held party lists and in parliament the country, they can still get There have been many, many calls for ment, which in practice means after the declaration of inde- remains. enough votes from these Kosovo politicians to try to come up with a that the minimum number of pendence of February 2008 and The complaints procedure strongholds to claim to repre- vision, a manifesto, or even some clearly seats an Albanian parliamen- has been organised in 40 days, tary party can have is six. has also been revamped in the sent the whole of Kosovo. For defined election promises which demon- hastily amended electoral law, example, the PDK has its bas- strate an understanding of their policy brief. following the unexpected disso- The speaker (also known as lution of parliament. The tech- president of the Assembly) in theory to give the new Panel tion in the Drenica region, Instead, we have had the same grandstand- for Appeals and Complains including the municipalities of ing to the party faithful and the usual broad- nical capacity of the Central chairs the Assembly. The Election Commission in partic- Assembly elects the president more teeth. Skenderaj, Drenas and brush approach. Visa liberalisation, pay Although they have always Malisheve, the LDK is strong in ular to run the elections with of the country for a four-year rises, NATO, EU, a better business environ- been held more frequently to Istog, Podujeve and Prishtina, such a short preparation peri- term and can remove a govern- ment are all trotted out as buzz words with date, in theory, elections for while the AAK’s stronghold is od will be challenged. But, fol- ment with a vote of no confi- little thought of how Kosovo is to tackle parliament are held every four in the west, including Decan, lowing underreported but dence. these issues. years. The election date is set Gjakove and Peje. Anyone who has watched the Jeta ne nonetheless widespread fraud The December 12 elections Kosove debates each night this week will have realised that most parties do not have well defined principles. The Main Contenders in the December 12 Poll And it’s a pity. More than two years after independence, it is surely time now to move But Thaci has come under criticism more In the municipal elections of 2009, Mustafa on to a more grown-up form of politics. recently from local and international was re-elected as mayor of Prishtina, this Of course, elections can be a little shallow actors for his government’s failure to com- time without the need for a run-off, after in many countries. Parties often campaign bat corruption and over allegations that he the PDK’s negative campaign against him on the ‘hopey-changey thing’, as Sarah Palin, is trying to control the media. worked in his favour. for once, aptly put it, or the ‘we’ve done a lot, Under pressure, he reshuffled his cabinet During the 1990s, Mustafa lived in exile but have much more to do’ model. in early 2010, removing a number of junior mainly in Germany, Switzerland, Albania, But usually behind the slick sound bites and deputy ministers, while leaving the big Slovenia and Croatia after an arrest war- and colourful balloons, you can discover a beasts, including Minister of Transport rant for him was issued by the Serbian manifesto which sets out ideals and policies.