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Serbs revote in tense northern Kosovo city amid high security

Associated Press
Published | Updated

EU police officers from Czech Republic guard the entrance at the polling station in the northern, Serb-dominated part of Mitrovica, Kosovo, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. International and local security forces in Kosovo are boosting their presence in the country's volatile north to prevent a repeat of electoral violence that forced a vote re-run in the Serb part of the city of Mitrovica. (AP Photo/Zveki) (The Associated Press)

Italian carabinieri, part of KFOR troops secure polling station in the northern, Serb-dominated part of Mitrovica, Kosovo, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. International and local security forces in Kosovo are boosting their presence in the country's volatile north to prevent a repeat of electoral violence that forced a vote re-run in the Serb part of the city of Mitrovica. (AP Photo/Zveki) (The Associated Press)

A woman votes at a polling station in the northern, Serb-dominated part of Mitrovica, Kosovo, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. International and local security forces in Kosovo are boosting their presence in the country's volatile north to prevent a repeat of electoral violence that forced a vote re-run in the Serb part of the city of Mitrovica. (AP Photo/Zveki) (The Associated Press)

Minority Serbs in a tense northern Kosovo city cast ballots under tight security, redoing a vote that was stopped when masked men attacked staff and destroyed voting materials.

Special police units in bulletproof vests backed by armed NATO peacekeepers stood outside polling stations to prevent a repeat of the electoral violence that stopped the Nov. 3 poll in Mitrovica.

The incident was blamed on hardline Serbs who fear the vote endorses Kosovo's 2008 secession from Serbia. Kosovo authorities said Sunday voter turnout was 22 percent.

The vote is to elect a mayor of the Serb-run part of the city and members of the local council.

Serb participation in the vote was a key part of an EU-brokered deal to normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo, which is majority ethnically Albanian.