MITROVICA - Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority boycotted Sunday’s local elections in the north, a move that could exacerbate tensions between the government and the community. Turnout was just 3.47 percent -- 1,567 voters -- out of some 45,000 of those registered, Electoral Commission spokesman Valmir Elezi told media. An estimated 120,000 Serbs live in Kosovo, many in the four northern districts bordering Serbia where Sunday’s local polls were held -- an attempt to restore the local governments after their ethnic Serb councillors resigned in November.
There are frequent bouts of unrest in the northern enclaves, where many ethnic Serbs have, like Belgrade, never accepted the unilateral declaration of independence that Kosovo made from its neighbour in 2008.