Kosovan parliamentary election, 2007
The third parliamentary elections in Kosovo since the end of the war in Kosovo took place on November 17, 2007. The Kosovar Parliament (Albanian Kuvendi i Kosovës, Serbian Cyrillic Skupština Kosova ) was at that time one of the provisional self-governing bodies (English Provisional Institutions of Self -Government, in short PISG) of the former southern Serbian province, which of the Transitional Administration the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK ) were established.
The elections were recognized by the UN special envoy and head of UNMIK, Joachim Rücker on 1 September 2007. At the same time were also held municipal and mayoral elections. The latter were first directly elected. First came a five-percent hurdle for the application.
Were elected 100 deputies in parliament, 920 large municipal councils and 30 mayors. 20 seats in parliament were, as usual, reserved for minorities.
There is a choice is occurred parties
Participating in the electoral lists were listed on the ballot as follows:
Poll
The 120,000 members of the Serbian community in Kosovo did not participate in the election. They followed as a call for a boycott from Belgrade (including the Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica ). In some predominantly Serb populated areas in northern Kosovo, the polling remained completely closed.
The turnout was only 42.8 percent. The European parliamentarian Doris Pack, who served as an election observer on site on behalf of the Council of Europe, described this low turnout as alarming. They should be seen as an expression of disappointment of the population.
Result
After the Democratic Party ( PDK) was established as the strongest force after almost complete counting of votes with 34 per cent, their top candidate, former KLA fighter Hashim Thaci declared the election winner and announced an early declaration of independence of Kosovo. The Democratic League (LDK ), Fatmir Sejdiu, the President came up with 22.6 percent in the second place - the party that had reached 45% in 2003, was one of the biggest losers of the election. Besides the two mentioned three other parties managed to jump over the five-percent hurdle: these were the Aleanca Kosova e Re ( AKR ), the Democratic League of Dardania (LDD ) and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo ( AAK ). Because of the special election law also parties to the minorities who score less than five percent of the vote made it to the Parliament.
Government formation
On January 9, Hashim Thaçi was elected by the PDK, as expected, the new prime minister. He received 85 votes in favor, 22 votes against and four abstentions. In addition to the second-largest party LDK also parties of ethnic minorities in Kosovo are part of the government. The PDK won seven ministerial posts, the LDK five. Of the three remaining ministerial positions, the Serbian SLS two received. The General Secretary of PDK, Jakup Krasniqi, was elected President of Parliament.
Thaci said after his election, the main task of his government was the establishment of an independent Kosovar state. The Declaration of Independence will still take place in the first half of 2008.