Nato officials delighted by Kosovo election turnout
Thousands of Serbs swept to the polls in the final hours of Kosovo's first elections since Nato and the United Nations entered the province.
According to early exit polls, pacifist leader Ibrahim Rugova seems to have coasted to a win in Kosovo's first province-wide elections since NATO and the United Nations pushed out forces loyal to Slobodan Milosevic.
The area's top UN and Nato officials declared the election a success, with just under half of the people in Serb enclaves voting.
They voted to choose deputies for a parliament that will run Kosovo together with the United Nations and the alliance.
Whether or not the Serbs would vote had been in doubt.
Ethnic Albanians see the vote as nothing short of a step toward independence.
Serbs fear the election will further dilute the influence of the central government in Belgrade.
Voters were electing a 120-seat national assembly that in turn will choose a president and form a provincial administration to govern alongside UN and Nato officials
Serbs are guaranteed at least 10 seats in the future parliament.
Turnout was 65% for ethnic Albanians and 46% for Serbs living in Kosovo, said the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
In Serbia and Montenegro, home to about 200,000 Kosovo Serbs who fled after the war, turnout was higher at 57%, the OSCE said.
