Page:Report on the Elections of the Kosovo Assembly 23 October 2004 Cgbur 11 74 E public.pdf/15

 There were occasionally long queues, but there was no unrest or impatience, on the contrary, voting proceeded calmly and often in an atmosphere of good humour. Domestic observers from political entities and from civil society groups, addressed by the delegation, expressed their satisfaction.

Despite misgivings from the delegation about extensive use of conditional voting, the system seemed to work well i. e. the possibility of voting despite not appearing on the electoral list, provided adequate identity was forthcoming.

Members of the delegation were present at the closing of the polls and subsequent counting, conducted in accordance with the electoral regulation.

The most significant negative feature of the day was the virtually total absence of voting by members of the Serb community.

For example, by 1600 in the Serb enclave of Gracanaica, in five polling stations each with approximately 1000 persons on the electoral list, the voting was 0, 0, 1, 3 and 4 cast votes respectively. This pattern was repeated throughout all parts of the territory where a Serb minority was present.

7. PRESS CONFERENCE, 24 OCTOBER 2004

There was a joint press conference, organised by the Council of Europe observation mission, with successive statements by the Head of Mission, Andrey TEHOV, the Head of the Congress delegation, Günther KRUG and the Head of the European Parliament delegation, Doris PAC.

The views of all three partners coincided, i. e. that the elections were well organised and represented a positive step in the achievements of the Standards for Kosovo, to be satisfied before negotiations on Final Status in 2005 were due to start.

Much had been made in the meeting and indeed in parts of the international community about the Serb boycott and that this impaired the election. Whilst of course the delegation expressed its disappointment at the boycott, it held a view that this did not detract from the organisation or fairness of the election. All communities were free to vote; the fact that some chose not to do so, or were encouraged or discouraged to vote, is part of legitimate electoral debate and practice, provided that direct coercion was not used.

The press communiqué is appended (Appendix I). The press conference was extremely well attended and the presence, programme and conclusions of the delegation were widely reported on TV and in the written press.

8. THE AFTERMATH OF THE ELECTIONS

Much of the political interest after the day of polling revolved around the credibility invested by Belgrade political circles and Kosovo–Serbs in the Serb political entities which took up the 10 set-aside seats.

There were also complaints lodged with ECAC about voting errors which the CEC preferred to resolve by a total recount.