This poll is illegitimate

The first local elections since Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February 2008 take place tomorrow, and calls for Kosovo Serbs to vote are growing louder. Urging the group to express their democratic rights and uphold community interests, these voices fail to consider an alternative perspective - that boycotting elections is an important democratic means of registering discontent with institutions and elections that many Kosovo Serbs regard as illegal and illegitimate.

With the International Court of Justice (ICJ) due to rule next year on the legality of Kosovo's independence declaration, pressuring Kosovo Serbs to participate in elections that don't conform with UN security council resolution 1244 risks further undermining the EU's capacity to play a stabilising role by eroding its already tenuous claims to be status-neutral.

The local elections are the first to be held outside the status-neutral framework of resolution 1244. As Vuk Jeremic, Serbia's foreign minister, has emphasised, "the SRSG [special representative of the UN secretary-general] did not call them, the OSCE will not monitor them and the UN cannot certify them. Under such circumstances, it is simply impossible for us [Serbia] to support them".

In spite of this, the EU's special representative in Kosovo, Peter Feith - who doubles as the head of the International Civilian Office, whose aim is to ensure full implementation of the Kosovo status settlement - has repeatedly pressed Serbs in Kosovo to take part. While voting is indeed a "democratic right" of the Serb community in Kosovo, it is also their democratic right to boycott participation in elections. The EU's failure to acknowledge this dual democratic right - the right not to vote - particularly in elections that are illegitimate according to resolution 1244, once again compromises its proclaimed status neutrality.

Nor are the pressures exerted upon Kosovo Serbs solely limited to rhetoric about electoral participation. Despite the security situation being described as "very, very favourable" by Markus Bentler - the commander of the Nato force in Kosovo, Kfor - it recently organised a two-day military exercise dubbed "Strong Gates" in the north of Kosovo, in conjunction with Eulex and the Kosovo Police Service. The manoeuvres, designed to ensure that troops are "familiar with the terrain and all defence procedures at border crossings of Brnjak and Jarinje", have been labelled a "provocation" by some Kosovo Serbs. Though such exercises are specified as being "regular", the timing of this particular drill is seemingly intended to send an unequivocal message to Kosovo Serbs in the north that any opposition will not be tolerated.

As in Afghanistan, the international community's determination to demonstrate successful "free and fair elections" and the democratic credentials of the assorted "partners" trump all other considerations, particularly long-term stabilisation and the normalisation of relations between Kosovo Serbs and Albanians. The elections themselves are likely to be marked by low turnout throughout Kosovo, with political disillusionment and corruption listed as key factors underpinning the widespread abstention. More disconcertingly, and to the "distress" of the US embassy in Pristina, the convoy of Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime minister, was stoned during an election campaign in the town of Decani, allegedly by supporters of Ramush Haradinaj's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) party.

The pre-election period has highlighted a deeper lingering concern in Kosovo: namely the day-to-day pressures exerted upon Kosovo Serbs, particularly in the north, by domestic and international actors. The timing and pronouncement of Nato's "Strong Gates" exercise, for instance, is an ill-conceived and inexcusable means of further reinforcing its message towards Kosovo Serbs. Meanwhile, the EU's deviation from its proclaimed status neutrality threatens to severely undermine its capacity to play a constructive and necessary role in contending with the difficult challenges ahead.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/14/kosovo-eu?