After three days of orientation and intensive training at Ohrid, and in the wee, pre-dawn
hours, we boarded charter buses for Kosovo. Along the way, in Macedonia, we stopped at a vast cleared
area, now empty, which had served as a refugee camp. Although the distance of travel across the border
was relatively short, the time involved was lengthy due to mountains, road conditions, stop at the border
station, and the need to follow our OSCE and military escorts.
MUNICIPALITY OF URO EVAC/FERIZAJ
Town of Ferizaj
The town of Ferizaj is located approximately 40 kilometers south of Kosovo's capital city, Pristina.
For the OSCE elections, the municipality of Uro evac/Ferizaj consisted of sixteen polling centres and 90
polling stations located at Ferizaj and in the villages surrounding it. The adjacent municipality of Kacanik
consists of 11 polling centres and 41 polling stations in Kacanik and its surrounding villages. All of the
American volunteers were assigned to polling stations in these areas which are located near Camp
Bondsteel, that is the vast U.S. Army base in Kosovo.
Our first stop was at UNMIK's headquarters located in Ferizaj's municipal building which also
serves as UNCIVPOL's station. The local "police" (TMK), trained and outfitted by UNMIK, were also
controlled from this headquarters. There, Mr. Morris, the comical, senior American policeman briefed our
delegations of supervisors on the local situation, introducing his staff and the portly Greek commander of
the KFOR. In the center of Ferizaj, a small community or enclave of Serbs (twenty or more) live in their
residences under the close protection of KFOR which also protects the local orthodox churches. We
learned too that violence is primarily Albanian-on-Albanian, that the "gun culture" continues to prevail in
Kosovo - - an AK-47 rifle and a grenade were found on the previous day - - and gunshots fired in the air
are commonplace.
The OSCE core supervisor told us that we were to work with a local committee of five persons,
including a chairman who was in effect our counterpart. None of the committees had worked together, nor
worked on an election before, and the members had virtually no training for handling voters.
Nevertheless, our relationship with the committee members was key to a smooth process. My polling
centre would be in the medical school in Ferizaj that was situated a short distance from Hotel Luboten
where some of us would be accommodated. I was paired with my friend, Doug Hartley, a retired Foreign
Service Officer, whose regular station was also located in the medical school. Dallas Cox was assigned,
by alphabet, to another polling centre.
Polling Centre in Medical School
On Thursday morning before the election, at the municipal gymnasium in Ferizaj , the
international supervisors assigned to Uro evac/Ferizaj met with the OSCE's core supervisor and his staff.
There we learned in greater detail what was expected of us and what our jobs would be.
Outside, we would meet our drivers and interpreters. Doug and I would share a van and driver,
though we each had our own interpreters. My job for OSCE was supervising an absentee polling station
in Ferizaj's medical school which was designated as a "mega" polling centre comprising 19 polling
stations. Doug was assigned a regular polling station in the same centre. The absentee polling station
would not only receive regular voters from the Uro evac/Ferizaj municipality, but also any registered,
internally displaced people and out-of-Kosovo returnees in the area. There were over 700 voters on the
register at my station, virtually all of which lived in or around Ferizaj. All registered persons would appear
to vote in person, including the absentee voters. As it happened, few (three or four) absentee voters
would appeared to vote.
That morning, with a few carefully rehearsed phrases in Albanian, I introduced myself to my
interpreter, Nexhat. Doug and I were careful to avoid speaking Serbo-Croatian words because of the
Albanian's hatred for Serbs and on-going attacks on Serbs and Serb-speaking foreigners. We then
visited the medical school to see the classrooms that would be used for the voting. Unfortunately, the
school was not fully equipped with working electricity, telephones, drinking water or flush toilets. This
disappointing lack became a huge problem throughout the election day as thousands of Albanians and
other groups turned out to vote there.
On Friday afternoon, we international supervisors, assigned to stations in the medical school,
returned there to met with the polling station committees which OSCE had selected and briefly trained.
Needless to say, these young Kosovars were very excited about participating in this historic event -
Kosovo's first democratic election. We proceeded to clean the small classroom, set up furniture, and hang
the various posters explaining the procedures to the voters.
ELECTION DAY
Supervising the Polling Station
Early the next morning, Saturday, I reached the medical school at 6:15 a.m. to find some of
the committee already there. Throngs of voters were assembling in the pre-dawn darkness. After the
centre was unlocked, we entered and unpacked the ballots, lists, and sensitive materials. The political
observers identified themselves to me, and I entered their names in the poll book that would contain the
minutes of this station. Quickly I found that OSCE's training for the committee members was incomplete
but, after Nexhat and I explained and rehearsed the duties of each person's position, and made some
changes and adjustments, we opened the door. We slowly began assisting the voters, making sure they
understood the ballots. I made sure that each of the members clearly understood their duties.
As I became confident that the station was operating smoothly, I stood at a table near the
two voting booths (cardboard enclosures with sample ballots) and the three political observers, where the
people passed before placing their ballots into the plastic ballot box. From there, I could see the people
show their registration slips and sign the voter register (they had registered to vote earlier this year). The
ballot issuer sprayed a fluorescent liquid (silver nitrate) on the voters' right forefingers so that there was
(indelible) proof that they had voted and couldn't vote a second time. The voters then moved on to
another table where they were given their ballots, and were instructed and directed to one of the two
voting booths. After marking their ballots, they folded and dropped them into the ballot box that we had
received in our polling station kit.
Within a short time after dawn, the crowds grew much larger and noisier. The continuous
stampede, pushing and shoving, and chaos created by the voters is now difficult to describe. Though
entirely peaceful, anxious, impatient voters had to wait for hours just to enter the centre. It was finally
necessary to keep six police officers at the door to my station just to control the queue. Standing there
watching these people coming through the line, many of them older women with their heads covered in
the Muslim fashion, watching gnarled old fingers getting sprayed, I had moments when belief was
suspended. Seeing this whole process unfold before me -- actually being in the middle of it -- is a high
point of these trips, and is an experience which is hard to top.
Counting and Processing the Ballots
At midnight on Saturday night, we closed the door and began the counting process, which
didn't finish until after 2 a.m. Monday - - each ballot was examined individually, its validity decided, and
then counted by hand. Nexhat and I carefully supervised this painstaking process, resolving disputes
quickly over the validity of poorly marked ballots. The overwhelming majority of regular voters at my
polling station voted for the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). The political observers present were
keen to learn this unmistakable fact.
Of the 696 ballots we received, many were sealed and tendered as conditional ballots,
because the voters' names were not listed on the registration lists, or the voters did not have proper
identification, and thus not immediately counted. Procedures required that registered voters who could
identify themselves, but whose names did not appear on the final voter's registers, were permitted to
tender conditional ballots which would be compared to the newer, updated lists at the OSCE
headquarters.
Because I was supervising the absentee station in the medical centre, administratively, I was
also designated to receive the conditional ballots cast in all of the regular polling stations in the centre that
were operated by the other international supervisors. During the counting and processing of regular
ballots, each supervisor separately bagged and tagged the conditional ballots. Nexhat and I and our
driver would then to deliver all the sensitive materials from the absentee station, and all the conditional
ballots to OSCE. At the OSCE headquarters, after the polls were closed, the conditional ballots (there
were many hundreds, if not thousands) were later opened and, very likely, many of them were counted as
valid and added to the final vote total.
That morning before dawn, with a UNCIVPOL (i.e., police) escort, I returned the election
results and sealed ballot materials to the OSCE's headquarters. There a Greek KFOR tank sat in front
and armed Greek soldiers guarded the entrance and the room where the ballots were stored.
Election Results
The results of Kosovo's first postwar elections, for local councils, showed that the region's
voters had overwhelmingly supported the party of a moderate reformer, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova. This week,
the OSCE announced the final election results, including those of the municipality of Uro evac/Ferizaj,
where I was assigned: Voter turnout there was 75.5% of 57,721 eligible voters. Of 41 council seats
allocated in the municipality, the LDK will receive 29, and the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) will
receive 11 seats. I am hopeful that our efforts in supervising this first democratic municipal election will
have a positive effect on precious lives of the Kosovo people.
COMMENTARY
As I mentioned above, this was the first free election ever in Kosovo, involving fledgling
political groupings with deep differences in an province of Yugoslavia just emerging from war and chaos.
The ballot was complex, with choices for either a party or individuals. Many of the voters were older
people and many barely literate. If, during the vote, the voter indicated that he or she had made a
mistake, the spoilt ballot was replaced. During ballot counting, which took place under the eyes of political
observers, we explained why each ballot was or was not valid. Invalid ballots, those where the voter's
intention wasn't clear, or where there was more than one choice
made, amounted to about 10% of the total.
We were all overwhelmed with voters, and the process of voters' registration was
incomplete, so no doubt there were some "irregularities". Nevertheless, the polling procedures were
never questioned. The procedures were accepted because they were and are regarded as a fundamental
part of the democratic process. We and our democratic allies have invested a huge amount of resources
to convince people in the Balkans and elsewhere that democracy is the answer, and to them free elections
is the fundamental first step in the process of free choice, which is the essence of democracy. They also
agree to trust the system, perhaps the first time in their lives that they have ever trusted a system to be
free and fair.
In previous elections in war-torn Bosnia, where I was also an international supervisor, these
principles were also accepted without question. Voters often asked for help and were assisted with the
ballots by family, other voters, or local members of the polling station committees. I can only imagine what
the impact would be if, in the U.S., the bastion of democracy, people were allowed to vote over again
because they didn't get it right the first time.
2001, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield,
Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve
Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org
