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Kosovo ex-rebel claims third term, turnout reflects frustrations

World News

09-06-2014 | 02:06

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Kosovo ex-rebel claims third term, turnout reflects frustrations

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Kosovo's ruling party of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci claimed a third term on Sunday in an election marked by a low turnout among Kosovars frustrated with widespread poverty and corruption.

With votes from 70 percent of polling stations counted, Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) held 30 percent, ahead of its arch rival in the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) with 26 percent.

Thaci is likely to form a coalition government with smaller parties and ethnic Serbs to secure his third four-year term in power, but his reliance on others could hamper his ability to govern effectively.

Turnout of only 43 percent, down from the two previous parliamentary elections, reflected widespread frustration among the Balkan country's 1.8 million people at the lack of progress made since Thaci presided over the territory's secession from Serbia in 2008.

"Tonight, Kosovo has won. From tomorrow we will start work on our new mission," Thaci told supporters in the capital, Pristina. "We will tell the world that Kosovo's independence was just the beginning, not the end."

Fifteen years since breaking away in war, Kosovo ranks among Europe's poorest countries. A third of the workforce is unemployed and corruption is rife.

REUTERS

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