(ANSA-AFP) - PRISTINA, APR 22 - Ethnic Serbs in Kosovo's
north on Sunday boycotted an extraordinary local election on
whether to oust their ethnic Albanian mayors in a territory
riddled with tension. The vote could have paved the way for the
election of Serbs to the mayoral posts after the appointment of
the ethnic Albanians sparked violence in the Belgrade-backed
region with a Serb majority. But only 253 out of some 45,000
eligible voters cast ballots, the Central Election Commission
said (CEC). For the election to be valid turnout has to be above
50 percent. Therefore the vote has failed, CEC chair Kreshnik
Radoniqi said. "The boycott implies the continuation of the
'status quo'... Serbs in the north continue to be an instrument
in the hands of Belgrade for political bargaining," the Koha
Ditore daily paper said online. Tensions in Kosovo's troubled
north have been smouldering for months, following local
elections won by the ethnic Albanian mayors in April last year.
(ANSA-AFP).
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