The Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) of incumbent Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi won a plurality amidst controversies and a partial re-poll, while he was still in the process of trying to form a government.
The election was marred by reports of drugs-, weapons- and human organs trafficking by an organisation linked to Thaçi, which led to the re-opening of a formal investigation by the EULEX mission.
Other analysts also warned of ominous outcomes: Nexhmedin Spahiu said "Kosovo will pay the biggest price for it in the eyes of the international community.
A journalist, Halil Matoshi, concurred with the reaction and added that "the quick and dizzying fall of all the pillars of the system [proved] the political establishment is unable to ensure stability.
It sends a very bad message for Kosovo as a new democracy at the time when the country is facing the Atlantic integrations and implementation of European standards to achieve NATO and EU membership".
[10] The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo of Ramush Haradinaj also signed an agreement with the LDK – Ibrahim Rugova faction list on 10 November 2010.
[11] At a party congress on 7 November, Pristina mayor Isa Mustafa was elected as the new leader of LDK, beating incumbent Fatmir Sejdiu with 235 to 125 votes.
[17] Thaçi announced a pay increase of 30 per cent for 70,000 civil servants as well as a doubling of teachers' salaries during the electoral campaign.
[22] The nationalist Vetëvendosje movement and the Liberal Democratic Fryma a Re (FER) were also expected to enter parliament for the first time after crossing the minimum 5% threshold.
The head of the commission Valdete Daka said on this would be Kosovo's most strictly watched elections with thousands of local and international observers in attendance.
[26] Vuk Drašković, a former foreign minister in Serbia and leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, urged Kosovan Serbs to vote.
[29] Several Serb organisation in both Serbia and Kosovo's Serbian areas said that continuing a boycott of elections was a denial of the ground reality.
The head of the Zvečan municipality near Kosovska Mitrovica, Dragiša Milović, said polling booths in Serb areas, including the police station were "unacceptable.
[22] Though the election passed off largely without incident, a Bosniak candidate who worked with the authorities in Pristina was shot dead in the northern city of Leposavić.
LDK spokesman said that the voting had been compromised in two PDK strongholds where turnout was "statistically impossible, logically unreasonable, politically unacceptable and legally contestable in Kosovo's reality" with 94 per cent compared to the national average of 48%.
[citation needed] Within days of the election, the Council of Europe released a report accusing Thaçi of leading a "mafia like" crime ring that smuggled weapons, drugs and human organs.
It said Serbians and some Albanian Kosovars civilians detained by the Kosovo Liberation Army were shot in northern Albania and their kidneys were sold on the black market.
[39][40][41] The report came on the day of the second vote, and was accepted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which requested re-opening of a criminal investigation.
[47] After reviewing the complaints, the Central Election Commission decided to have re-polling in 21 polling stations: 12 in Skenderaj, 5 in Drenas, 2 in Deçan and one each in Malishevë and Lipjan.
[63] Behgjet Pacolli, leader of the New Kosovo Alliance stated, on 30 December, that he would either demand the office of president in return for entering a coalition with the PDK[64] or the ministries of Finance and Health.