Kosovo vote, key to Serb integration, marred by intimidation Participation of Serb-populated northern Kosovo in the country-wide council and mayoral elections is central to an agreement reached in April to integrate the north with the rest of Kosovo, which is majority Albanian and declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia has called on Serbs in northern Kosovo to take part for the first time, with the EU holding out the prospect of membership talks with Belgrade - slated to begin in January - as a reward. Dozens gathered outside polling stations in the north hurling abuse at mayoral candidates and filming people who entered to vote. The municipal vote is the most tangible sign yet of the shift in official Serbian policy towards its former southern province. Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999, when NATO bombed for 11 weeks to halt the killing and expulsion of Albanians by Serbian forces trying to crush an insurgency. Serbia, however, agreed to cede the foothold in April in exchange for EU accession talks that the former Yugoslav republic hopes will drive reform and help lure investors to its struggling economy. Besides the north, tens of thousands of Serbs live in scattered enclaves across the rest of Kosovo but are far more integrated into the new state. Preliminary results are expected on Sunday evening but are unlikely to bring about much change at the state level. Turnout among Serbs in the north will give an indication of the scale of resistance to integration with the rest of Kosovo and the challenge facing the newly-elected councilors and the EU in implementing the April accord. Kosovo's election authority said general turnout by 11 a.m. ET) was 12 percent, but just 3 percent in north Mitrovica, the Serb side of the ethnically-divided town. A Reuters reporter in Mitrovica said morning voting appeared to be slow. "What we need is a strong city leadership that will tackle issues like infrastructure, sewage ... and not politics," said Oliver Ivanovic, another candidate for Mitrovica mayor. Protesters jeered and shouted "traitor!" as he turned up to vote. Milka, a 43-year-old Serb woman who refused to give her full name, said she would not vote for fear of losing her job in a state-run company where she said the manager had threatened to fire any worker he saw voting. Nationalist hardliners had also traveled south from Serbia to back the boycott. Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina; writing by Matt Robinson; editing by Tom Pfeiffer