Technical hitches have been resolved and local elections in Kosovo should be able to proceed smoothly, the Council of Europe said Thursday, citing a report from its observers in the area.
"The technical problems met in previous stages of election preparations have now mostly been overcome," the Council of Europe's election observation mission stated.
The mission was disappointed that efforts to encourage the minority Serb population in Kosovo to participate (in the election) "were not crowned with success" despite a large-scale information campaign.
The media "conscientiously played their role by cooperating in the information campaign," the mission said.
About 150 Council of Europe observers are monitoring the election.
Saturday's municipal election is Kosovo's first democratic election.
The elections will also be the first chance for Kosovo's voters to oust municipal councilors who forced their way into power as guerrillas in favor of democratically elected moderates. If this happens, some, including officers of Kosovo's peacekeeping force KFOR, fear a violent reaction.
The Serb community had boycotted an earlier election, turning it into a mono-ethnic affair. Observers had earlier feared that ethnic violence would stain the election.
However, the province's UN chief administrator, Bernard Kouchner, has told the Serb community that if they showed willingness to cooperate now that the threat of retaliation by former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic has been removed, a way could be found to hold new elections before the two-year terms to be served by Saturday's victors are complete -- STRASBOURG (AFP)
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