Serbs boycott

last updated 8 January 2015

Pristina, Kosovo

Kosovo’s government was in turmoil this week after its Serbian minority boycotted parliamentary elections. Kosovar Serbs said they did not want to lend legitimacy to a parliament that would almost certainly try to declare independence from Serbia. Under electoral rules, the 120-seat parliament must include 10 seats for Serbs. But since fewer than 1 percent of Kosovar Serbs voted, those seats can’t be filled. Kosovo, technically still a province of Serbia, has been administered by the U.N. since the end of the 1999 war, when NATO intervened after Serbian militia tried to drive out the majority ethnic Albanians. U.N. talks on the province’s final status will begin next year, and Kosovar President Ibrahim Rugova, an Albanian, said he would seek independence.