When the terrorists in Iraq chased the UN out, it was probably the best thing that ever happened for democracy in Iraq. The UN has waited FIVE YEARS to hold elections in Kosovo and it was a total disaster.

Early results from the weekend's general election showed that five years of UN rule had only deepened ethnic divisions as Kosovo's voters signalled their despair with the Balkan province's administrators.

Barely more than half of Kosovo's 1.4 million voters went to the ballot box. While the province's majority ethnic Albanians were struck by apathy, its 130,000-strong Serb minority was seized by anger and completely boycotted the poll.

Only a handful of Serbs voted, following calls from Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister, and the Serbian Orthodox Church to stay away. Mr Kostunica described the election as a "failure".

The level of absenteeism prompted Soren Jessen-Petersen, the UN governor in Kosovo, to protest that some Serbs had been intimidated into observing the boycott and had "had their democratic right to vote hijacked".

The U.N. is not the only one to blame though. It is a legacy of the Democrat's policy in that region of leaving the dirty work to our "allies". Sounds like Kerry's plan for Iraq.