Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci claimed victory Sunday in the country's first parliamentary elections since independence, but the main opposition party rejected exit polls suggesting it had come second.
Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's party was ahead in Sunday's parliamentary election according to early exit polls by an independent NGO, which put the Democratic Party of Kosovo at six per cent ahead of its former coalition partners.
Kosovars head to the polls on Sunday for the first general election since the former enclave unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Polls show Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in a close race with Pristina Mayor Isa Mustafa.
Nearly three years after it declared itself independent from Serbia, Kosovo is holding its first elections. But Belgrade still refuses to recognise Pristina's sovereignty. Meanwhile, Serbs still living in the breakaway republic are divided. Those in the northern parts of Kosovo, close to the border with Serbia, are expected to boycott the ballot. But elsewhere in Kosovo, some Serbs are planning to turn out.
Kosovo's parliament backed a no-confidence motion Tuesday, bringing down Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's (pictured) government, which led the country to independence from Serbia in 2008. Elections will be held within 45 days.
Kosovo's president Fatmir Sejdiu has resigned from his post after the Constitutional Court found his concurrent positions as both president and leader of a political party in breach of the country's constitution.
A French Gendarme was shot and wounded in the leg early on Sunday as European Union police moved to halt clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs that erupted following a basketball match in Kosovo's divided city of Mitrovica.
Serbia has agreed to dialogue with Kosovo by supporting a landmark UN resolution which could bring cooperation between the detached states, and would also favour Belgrade in its bid to become an EU member state.
Serbia has proposed new United Nations negotiations on the subject of Kosovo, but failed to mention its status in the resolution. Belgrade has previously insisted that Kosovo's status be dealt with as a precondition for talks.
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