http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=235462&section=Kosovo

Kosovo Serbs Brave Cold, Power Cuts, to Vote in Serbian Poll

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec 23, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse)
Kosovo's Serb minority came out to vote Saturday in the first Serbian
legislative
election since their province came under international control.

Voting began slowly at polling stations in this northern Kosovo town, and in
Serb
enclaves in central Kosovo near the provincial capital Pristina.

The election was taking place in freezing temperatures and amid power outages.

Electoral officials reported none of the fraud and violence which marred
September's federal elections.

Zoran Vukadinovic, the central election commission's co-ordinator in Mitrovica,
said: "It is traditional for people here to vote after 10:00 am, so it started a
bit
slowly.

"In some stations we were concerned about the lack of polling booths, but in
general it's going very well and we are content that the vote is being conducted
fairly."

Kosovo's polling booths were set up at great speed following a last-minute
decision to send polling materials into the UN-run province, but Vukadinovic
told
reporters that his "neutral" observers had access to all official voting
stations.

The stations were open in Serb-majority north Kosovo, AFP saw, and in the
mixed central Kosovo town of Kosovo Polje, witnesses told AFP by telephone,
but not in ethnic Albanian areas.

The people in those regions violently rejected Serb sovereignty in a 1998-1999
armed rebellion, which provoked a Serb backlash that eventually drew NATO
peacekeepers into the province, now run by the United Nations.

Despite the province's war-damaged infrastructure and chaotic political scene,
early signs were that the voting in Serb areas was going smoothly.

"Our biggest problem is lack of electricity, and some stations opened late, but
things are going well now," said official observer Savic Miodlaj.

No international monitors are following the polling in Kosovo.

UN spokesman Frank Benjaminsen told AFP Saturday that the UN police and
NATO's peacekeepers were keeping an eye on the situation, but there had been
no initial reports of trouble.

In September's federal legislative and presidential elections, turnout among
Kosovo's Serb community was high, as voters sought to demonstrate their
commitment to continuing Yugoslav sovereignty over the province.

However fraud was reported as widespread and there were street clashes
between rival political factions in the build up to voting.