VZCZCXRO3330
PP RUEHIK
DE RUEHPS #0456/01 2921111
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 191111Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9355
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 1223
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1747
RHFMIUU/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFISS/CDR TF FALCON
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUZEJAA/USNIC PRISTINA SR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000456 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/PGI, INL, DRL, PRM, USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM EAID PINR KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO:  CAMPAIGN OPENS FOR NOVEMBER 15 MUNICIPAL 
ELECTIONS 
 
PRISTINA 00000456  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  The official campaign period for Kosovo November 
15 municipal elections kicked off on October 15.  The elections, the 
first since independence and the first managed by domestic 
institutions, mark an important milestone in Kosovo's democratic 
growth.  Kosovo Albanian and Serb parties will contest 36 
municipalities, including three new Ahtisaari-mandated Serb-majority 
municipalities. (Note:  We will report on Kosovo Serb and 
decentralization developments septel.  End Note) There is a general 
consensus that Kosovo's Central Election Commission (CEC) has, thus 
far, managed the technical aspects of the election well.  We are 
providing political and financial support to the CEC, and we have 
stressed to political leaders that their conduct during the campaign 
will play a critical role in shaping the international and domestic 
assessment of the election.  The Kosovo Albanian governing and 
opposition parties all have high hopes for their electoral 
prospects, but each will confront growing apathy among voters 
increasingly frustrated with the political class's inability to 
resolve issues, such as employment, that impact their day-to-day 
lives.  END SUMMARY. 
 
MUNICIPAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN OPENS 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The official campaign season for Kosovo's November 15 
municipal elections kicked off on October 15.  Seventy-four 
political parties and entities are competing in the upcoming 
elections -- more than 20 of them ethnic Serb -- for mayoralties and 
municipal assembly seats in 36 municipalities.  These include the 
existing thirty-three municipalities, an expanded Novo Brdo, and 
three additional Ahtisaari-mandated Serb-majority municipalities: 
Gracanica, Klokot, Ranilug.  The two additional Ahtisaari-mandated 
Serb-majority municipalities -- Mitrovica North and Partesh -- will 
hold elections in Spring 2010.  Voters will elect mayors directly, 
but municipal council seats will be assigned on a proportional 
basis.  Voters will have the option of casting their assembly ballot 
for either a party list or a specific candidate. 
 
TRAINING WHEELS OFF: KOSOVO RUNS ITS OWN ELECTIONS 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The November 15 municipal elections will be the first in an 
independent Kosovo and the first administered solely by Kosovo's 
Central Elections Commission (CEC).  CEC officials see the elections 
as an opportunity to demonstrate their institution's capacity and 
Kosovo's democratic maturity.  Nonetheless, the CEC has recognized 
its own limitations and reached out to the international community 
for technical support.  The U.S. is providing $3.3 million in 
assistance to help the CEC administer its Results and Counting 
Center, introduce an SMS system to more quickly relay election 
results, finance the CEC's public information campaign, and help 
train local journalists and NGOs on election observation.  There is 
general consensus that, thus far, the CEC has ably managed the 
technical aspects of the election, an observation echoed by a 
National Democratic Institute (NDI) pre-election assessment released 
on October 15. 
 
LET THE CAMPAIGN BEGIN - SOME EARLY CHALLENGES 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶4. (SBU) Though positive overall, the NDI report highlighted some 
important challenges for the CEC.  Voter lists are derived from the 
Central Civil Registry and names have not been removed from the 
registry when people die or leave the country.  This has raised some 
concerns about the possibility for fraud, something the Russian 
Ambassador (almost gleefully) stressed in an October 12 Contact 
Group meeting.  The CEC plans a vigorous program against possible 
fraud on election day to address the issue.  Many observers also 
believe that voter turnout will be an important measure of Kosovo's 
democratic progress, but if the number of registered voters is 
inaccurately inflated the percentage of voter turnout will be lower 
than was actually the case.  As a consequence, our interlocutors 
 
PRISTINA 00000456  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
have emphasized the importance of measuring voter turnout in 
absolute rather than percentage terms. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In a test of CEC's patience and Kosovo's elections laws, 
some of Kosovo's most prominent parties, including the senior 
governing coalition partner the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and 
the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), began their 
campaigns several weeks prior to the official October 15 start date. 
 PDK and AAK plastered Pristina -- Kosovo's capital and most 
populous city -- with campaign billboards and posters.  PDK's junior 
ruling coalition partner the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and 
ethnic Albanian businessman Behgjet Pacolli's Alliance for a New 
Kosovo (AKR) cried foul and formally submitted complaints to the 
CEC's Elections Complaints and Appeals Commission (ECAC).  Whatever 
the ECAC decides, the actions of PDK and AAK were, as NDI noted, 
seen by many as "inconsistent with spirit of fair play." 
 
PDK WORKS TO MAINTAIN HOLDINGS, LDK FIGHTS TO SURVIVE 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Governing coalition partners PDK and LDK are not running in 
pre-election coalition in the upcoming contest, and are in fact 
dueling for mayoral seats and control of municipal assemblies 
throughout Kosovo.  PDK, which won pluralities in 27 municipal 
assemblies and 16 mayoral slots in the 2007 elections -- almost 
entirely at LDK's expense -- is seeking to hold, if not expand, its 
municipal powerbase.  The once formidable LDK suffered huge 
municipal losses in 2007, winning only five assemblies and seven 
mayoral positions.  LDK leaders are continuing to try to 
reinvigorate and reorganize the party, and hope that these municipal 
elections will provide the party a much-needed electoral shot in the 
arm.  Nonetheless, internal fissures, including unhappiness among 
some with President Sejdiu's leadership, continue to hobble the 
party.  LDK may have to console itself with holding its ground. 
 
 
AAK: VORACIOUS FOR POWER 
------------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU) AAK, Kosovo's small but prominent opposition party led by 
former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, has been singularly focused 
on returning to power.  A good showing on November 15 is seen as a 
potential launching pad by Haradinaj and the party for national 
elections, currently expected in 2011.  AAK currently has three 
mayors and controls three municipal assemblies:  Peja/Pec, 
Decan/Decane, and Gjakove/Djakovica.  All are in western Kosovo. 
AAK hopes to solidify its western power base by picking up the 
vulnerable LDK-held municipality of Istog/Istok.  The party also 
wants to demonstrate that it is more than a regional phenomenon by 
picking up mayoralties and municipal assembly seats elsewhere in the 
country.  By all accounts, AAK is motivated and has organized local 
party leaders and its constituency toward this goal. 
 
AKR and LDD SEEK TO GAIN LOCAL PRESENCE 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Democratic League of Dardania (LDD) and the Alliance of 
a New Kosovo (AKR) best known for their enigmatic leaders, Nexhat 
Daci and Behgjet Pacolli, leveraged their political celebrity to 
noteworthy success in Kosovo's Assembly elections in 2007, gaining 
over 20 seats altogether, but failed to win any municipal assemblies 
or mayoralties in that year's local elections.  In the upcoming 
contest, the parties are loosely coordinating local efforts to gain 
seats in municipal assemblies.  AKR continues to focus on 
national-level issues like foreign investment and gaining 
recognitions of Kosovo's independence, but the party is making 
modest efforts throughout Kosovo, particularly in Gjakove/ 
Djakovica, where it is running a first-time candidate well-known in 
Kosovo's business community.  LDD's campaign is less organized -- 
riddled by recent party defections -- but in a surprise move, LDD is 
the only ethnic Albanian political entity that registered for both 
the assembly and mayoral races in the new ethnic-Serb majority 
Gracanica municipality. 
 
PRISTINA 00000456  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
BATTLING VOTER APATHY 
--------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Whatever their electoral aspirations, all Kosovo's 
political parties confront the growing problem of voter apathy. 
Turnout, measured in absolute terms, has been declining steadily 
over the decade.  The post-independence euphoria among Kosovo 
Albanians is also waning, and the voters we talk to express 
frustration with the political class's inability to make progress on 
issues of day-to-day concern to them, such as employment and energy. 
 Political parties have been slow to develop issue-based campaigns 
that address voter concerns.  Instead, their day-to-day discourse 
often centers on status issues, something we are encouraging them to 
change.  That said, thus far, the major Kosovo Albanian parties have 
refrained from turning the municipal elections into a chest thumping 
contest over which party is the most patriotic. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Kosovo's November 15 municipal elections are rightly seen 
as an important test in the country's democratic development. 
Whatever the outcome, we have stressed privately to the leaders of 
the country's major political parties that their conduct during the 
campaign will impact perceptions of Kosovo within the international 
community.  On October 14, the Ambassador participated in a signing 
ceremony with party leaders of a campaign "code of conduct" to 
underscore the point publicly.  We have also offered steadfast 
political and technical support to the CEC in order to help it 
resist political pressure, such as the August row over its sound 
decision against placing cameras in polling places.  Finally, we are 
funding an international election monitoring effort and plan to send 
our own teams into the field in order to reinforce confidence in the 
electoral process among voters. 
 
DELL