PRISTINA: 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 then 5,000 police officers throughout the territory of Kosovo,” police spokesman Baki Kelani said, 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 of Alliance for Future of Kosovo (AAK) led by former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj. Nato-led international peacekeepers (KFOR) had to step in to neutralize the device, police said in a statement.

Then Prime Minister Hashim Thaci’s motorcade came under a hail of stones and eggs late 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 ethnicly 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.”