Thaci claims victory in Kosovo poll

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has claimed victory in Kosovo’s first general election since independence.

Exit polls put his PDK party six percentage points in the lead with an estimated 31 per cent of the vote.

If the results are confirmed – and that will not happen until later today – it means Thaci will still need the support from other parties to form a coalition government.

However, until the results are published the leader of Thaci’s former coalition partner, Isa Mustafa is refusing to concede defeat.But his DLK party appears to have only garnered 25 percent of votes.

While the election is being seen as a mark of Kosovo’s democratic maturity, the fact that ethnic Serbs boycotted the poll is a sign of lingering tensions after the former province’s unilateral breakaway from Belgrade.

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