Kosovo returns to polls after violence-marred election

Kosovo voters cast ballots under a heavy police presence Sunday in round two of local elections seen as a test of stability in the troubled, Serb-majority north of the territory. The election is part of a historic deal brokered by the EU to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo after the breakaway territory proclaimed independence in 2008. Some 1.3 million voters are called to elect mayors including in the capital Pristina, and four northern municipalities including the flashpoint city of Kosovska Mitrovica. Round one of the vote, on November 3, was annulled in Mitrovica due to violence by Serbian extremists. Repeat elections were held two weeks later under police watch. On Sunday two Serb candidates -- one backed by Belgrade and an independent -- were running for mayor in Mitrovica. "All polling stations opened at 0700 am (0600 GMT) and so far no incidents were reported," the head of Kosovo's electoral commission Valdete Daka told reporters. Police, peacekeepers from the NATO-led force KFOR and the EU mission were deployed once again near polling stations to ward off any threat of violence. Serbia rejects Kosovo's independence but has urged the ethnic Serb community to vote and have their say in local institutions. Officials elected in the vote are to form an "association of Serb municipalities" to replace Belgrade-elected institutions in northern Kosovo that both Pristina and the international community deem illegal. About 120,000 ethnic Serbs live in Kosovo, whose 1.8-million-strong population is mainly Albanian. Some 40,000 ethnic Serbs, who have recognized neither Kosovo's independence nor the authorities in Pristina since the end of the 1998-1999 war, form a majority in the north. Authorities on both sides of the border hope that a peaceful and successful election can boost their hopes of joining the European Union.