EU condemns election violence in Kosovo

The European Union on Monday condemned the violence in municipal elections in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, as the election commission in Pristina examined the vote. According to dpa, masked men smashed ballot boxes and attacked officials at a polling station in the town Mitrovica, hours before polls closed Sunday. Thugs were seen intimidating voters in the enclave, where the turnout at the polls was far lower than in other parts of Kosovo amid a call by Serb nationalists for a boycott. "We condemn the violent incidents ... in Mitrovica which disrupted the otherwise orderly run electoral process in the rest of Kosovo," said Maja Kocijancicthe, spokeswoman for the EU's top diplomat Catherine Ashton said in Brussels. The head of Kosovo's central election commission, Valdete Daka, said major irregularities had been reported in municipalities in the north.