(ANSA-AFP) - PRISTINA, FEB 9 - Voters began casting ballots
in Kosovo elections Sunday in a contest that pits combative
incumbent Prime Minister Albin Kurti's quest to stamp out
Serbian influence against a fractured opposition's vow to boost
the economy. Kurti and his Vetevendosje ("Self-Determination")
party (VV) have campaigned on their efforts to dismantle the
remaining Serbian institutions in Kosovo while expanding the
government's reach to Serb-majority areas. Those pledges have
been well received by large swathes of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian
majority, with one of the few available polls projecting that VV
was on course to capture roughly half of the vote. Kurti's
campaign has sought to drive home the message, insisting the
government is in greater control of Kosovo's territory than at
any other time since independence. "It will be a historic
referendum on Sunday," Kurti said at a campaign rally in
Pristina Friday night, emphasising the need to secure 500,000
votes to form a majority government. Animosity between Kosovo
and Serbia has persisted since the war between Serbian forces
and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s. Serbia has
steadfastly refused to acknowledge Kosovo's declaration of
independence in 2008. Since the war's end, remnants of Serbian
government institutions continued to provide services -- ranging
from health care to education -- to Serbs inside Kosovo. But in
the past year, Kurti has sought to end that status quo. Voting
began at 07:00 am (0600 GMT) and will end 12 hours later, when
exit polls are expected. (ANSA-AFP).
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