By Boris Cerni and Misha Savic - Jun 8, 2014

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci won Kosovo’s second parliamentary elections since independence from Serbia, according to early results, with voters seeking higher living standards in one of Europe’s poorest states.

Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo had 30 percent with 44 percent of the vote counted, the Kosovo Electoral Commission said on its website late yesterday. The Democratic League of Kosovo led by former Pristina Mayor Isa Mustafa was second with 26 percent. Turnout was 43 percent, the Commission said. Full results are expected today.

With unemployment at 35 percent and output per capita at about a 10th of the European Union average, according to the bloc’s statistics agency, Eurostat, Kosovo must lure investment to replace foreign aid and remittances as its main economic drivers. Serbia must also mend ties with its former province to move closer to EU membership, even as it vows to never formally recognize its 2008 secession.

“Today is a beautiful day for democracy in Kosovo,” Thaci said on Facebook after casting his ballot.

The Self Determination movement came third with 12 percent, followed by the Alliance for Future of Kosovo getting 10 percent, preliminary results showed. The Serbian List, one of the parties representing ethnic Serbs who make up less than 10 percent Kosovo’s 1.8 million people, got 5 percent.
Thaci Accusations

Seeking his third term as premier, Thaci was part of and later led the Kosovo Liberation Army, a paramilitary group that fought Serbian forces before independence.

Serbia is seeking an international probe into Thaci and other KLA commanders, who were accused in 2010 in a report by the Council of Europe of trafficking the organs of Serb prisoners in 1999, at the height of the conflict when a NATO bombing campaign was driving Serb forces from the region. Thaci has rejected the allegations as a fabrication meant to smear his government.

Since its secession, Kosovo has wrangled with Serbia over property rights, power supply and trade issues. Serbia has accused Kosovo of oppressing its compatriots in what many in the Balkan state consider to be the cradle of Serbian heritage.

With the EU demanding Serbia normalize ties with Kosovo as part of its membership path, the government in Belgrade last week urged all Serb voters in Kosovo to take part in the ballot.

Electoral authorities reported no major disturbances during voting yesterday. Some Serbs weren’t allowed to vote in a few polling stations in central Kosovo because they had only Serbian identity documents, despite an earlier agreement that all residents be allowed to cast ballot, Serbian state broadcaster RTS reported after voting ended.

The 2010 general election in the landlocked Balkan nation, Europe’s second-poorest country according to the World Bank, was marred by irregularities, while violence disrupted some voting in a local ballot last year.