Kosovo steps up security ahead of polls

Kosovo has launched a huge security operation ahead of today's first polls since its 2008 independence declaration, drafting in thousands of extra police, a spokesman said yesterday.

"The plan calls for more than 5,000 police officers throughout the territory of Kosovo," police spokesman Baki Kelani told AFP, adding they will be asked to work overtime around polling stations.

The measures were taken following an electoral campaign marred by several incidents. These included the discovery of an unexploded hand grenade at a branch headquarter of the leading opposition party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) led by former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj.

Nato-led international peacekeepers (KFOR) had to step in to neutralise the device, police said in a statement.

Then Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's motorcade came under a hail of stones and eggs last Wednesday as he left the western town of Decani after a rally organised by his Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK).

A day later the AAK's candidate running for mayor of northern Kosovo's ethnically divided city of Mitrovica was ambushed but escaped unhurt.

However, Nato-led peacekeepers expected no security problems during the election day voting.

The KFOR commander, German General Markus Bentler, said he has "no indications that the election process will pose a security risk at the polling stations for the voters."

But he said 13,000 KFOR troops would be ready to react at very short notice if needed.

The elections are the first since the ethnic-Albanian majority unilaterally declared Kosovo independence from Serbia in February 2008.

More than 1.5 million people are eligible to vote for mayors and local council members in 36 municipalities, including the capital Pristina.

The success of the municipal poll could be decided by the size of a threatened Serb boycott.