(12 Dec 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Wide exterior of polling station in school
2. Wide pan of polling station, elections officials
3. Close of officials at work
4. Close of clock showing 0700
5. Various of officials opening school for voting
6. Wide of first voter walking in
7. Various of first voter casting ballot
8. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Fitim Gashi, Vox pop:
"I hope things will change for the better. There has been no progress so far so we're hoping for a change for the better. We have seen who works and who doesn't, so now I think we know better who to vote for."
9. School corridor
10. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Kumrije Sahiti, School director and election official:
"Polling stations have opened at 0700. We are ready for the voters and everything is in order."
11. School corridor
STORYLINE
Polls opened across Kosovo on Sunday for the first parliamentary election since the country broke away from Serbia.
Voting material was transported to over 2-thousand polling stations in Kosovo's 37 municipalities under armed police protection, election officials said on Sunday.
"I hope things will change for the better," said one voter, Fitim Gashi, as he turned out early to cast his vote in Pristina.
The election comes amid Serbia's call to the country's Serb minority to boycott the polls.
The move deepens fears of partition within Kosovo and further undermines local government and international overseers' attempts to bring the lawless north under Pristina's control.
Some 1.6 (M) million voters are eligible to take part in the poll vote for 29 political parties, coalitions and citizens' initiatives to enter Kosovo's 120-seat parliament.
The snap election comes after Kosovo's parliament ousted Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's government in a no-confidence vote early in November, paving the way for a new election to be called within 45 days.
The vote of no confidence followed weeks of political turmoil in Kosovo after Thaci's coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo, of LDK, decided to leave the government.
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