PRISTINA, Serbia - Kosovo's voters cast ballots Saturday for a parliament most hope will deliver statehood, and the leading candidate promised to declare independence if mediators fail to reach a deal by next month's deadline.
Opposition leader Hashim Thaci, favored in recent polls as a likely winner, told The Associated Press shortly after he cast his vote that if he becomes Kosovo's prime minister he would declare independence from Serbia after Dec. 10.
The date is when international envoys must report back to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on efforts to resolve the dispute over Kosovo's future status.
"Immediately after Dec. 10, Kosovo's institutions will declare the independence of Kosovo," said Thaci, 39, a former rebel leader.
Ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, insist on independence, but Serbia has said it would never recognize a Kosovar state.
Two years of negotiations between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders and the Serbian government over the province's status have made little progress.
The latest effort is being mediated by representatives from the United States, Russia and the European Union.
Decisions on Kosovo's status are made through a forum of top ethnic Albanian leaders, who include the province's prime minister as well as opposition politicians. However, any declaration of independence has to be formally endorsed by the province's parliament.
Some of Kosovo's leaders have recently sought to move back from promises for an immediate declaration of independence if no deal is reached by the deadline. Instead, they are saying Kosovo will wait until after the mediators' report is delivered before considering when a declaration of independence might be made.
Serbia has warned that unilateral moves that curb its formal sovereignty over the province -- such as declaring independence -- would endanger the region's stability.
Voters lined up in low temperatures outside polling stations Saturday in the third vote for the legislature since the province came under U.N. and NATO control in 1999, after the last in a string of wars that shattered Yugoslavia.
Ethnic Albanians have watched with increasing skepticism as their leaders have failed to achieve independence from Serbia. The economy, meanwhile, is in shambles, jobs are scarce and power outages are plentiful.
"I'm voting for a safer future, but I'm not expecting miracles" said Dea Mula, an ethnic Albanian student. "I'd like to see independence declared, although I can't be sure when that might happen."
About 1.5 million people are eligible to elect a new provincial parliament; the party that gets the most seats in the 120-member legislature will form a government and name a prime minister. Voters will also choose local councils and municipal mayors.
Election officials said turnout was low -- around 30 percent by early afternoon -- although it was expected to rise before the polls close.
Kosovo's dwindling Serb minority, as in past elections, was expected to boycott the vote, obeying calls from Serbia's leadership to shun the poll. Some Serb voters in ethnic Albanian-dominated areas turned up at polling stations, election observers said.
Slavisa Mojsilovic summed up the prevailing mood of Serbs in Kosovo.
"I'm not interested in these elections. These are not the elections of our state of Serbia," Mojsilovic said. "We belong in Serbia and when they call for elections, then we will vote."
