(20 Jan 2008)
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Wide of road with traffic
2. Wide of people walking
3. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) Kushtrim Krasnici, Kosovo Albanian:
"Kosovo has its own path. I'm really surprised that they are voting for radicals again. But I really do not care whom they vote for."
4. Wide of road with traffic
5. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) Labinot Rama, Kosovo Albanian:
"I really cannot believe they are again working against Europe, they voted against the European Union. They are not following the European path but instead they are doing the same thing that Milosevic did.'
6. Wide of street with people walking
7. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) Zair Canaku, Kosovo Albanian:
"Well, they cannot vote for the radicals and show how they are. This is a totally wrong choice. But we have our priorities here and that is the EU and trying not to look back at them."
8. Wide of traffic driving past
STORYLINE:
Kosovo Albanians interviewed by AP Television in Pristina on Sunday expressed surprise that voters appeared to be favouring the radical nationalist candidate in Serbia's presidential election.
Vote counting was underway and independent monitors said the pro-Russian, nationalist challenger, Tomislav Nikolic had edged ahead of the pro-Western incumbent President Boris Tadic, but failed to win an outright majority, forcing the two into a run-off.
The election could determine whether the troubled Balkan nation will move closer to the European Union or sink back into isolation similar to that of the era of late autocratic leader Slobodan Milosevic.
Looming over the vote was the expected declaration of independence next month by Kosovo province - Serbia's medieval heartland and now dominated by pro-independence ethnic Albanians.
"Kosovo has its own path. I'm really surprised that they are voting for radicals again," said Kushtrim Krasnici, a Kosovo Albanian.
"I really cannot believe they are again working against Europe, they voted against the European Union," said Labinot Rama, another Kosovo Albanian.
Belgrade's Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, which independently counted votes alongside election officials, said Nikolic, an ally of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic had received about 39 percent of the first-round vote, compared with Tadic's 35 percent.
A run-off was scheduled for February 3.
Some 6.7 (m) million people were eligible to vote in the election, including more than 100-thousand in Kosovo, where the balloting was organised only in Serb-held municipalities.
Ethnic Albanians have boycotted all Serbian elections since the early 1990s.
Nine candidates were vying for the presidency, but only Tadic and Nikolic were considered serious contenders.
The state electoral commission said nearly 33 percent of voters cast ballots in the first seven hours, which is more than in 2004 when Nikolic edged ahead of Tadic in the first round, but lost in a run-off.
Polling stations were closed across Serbia at 1900 GMT.
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