Kosovo's minority Serbian population was all but silent Saturday in the province's first general election since becoming a UN protectorate in 1999. The vast majority of Serbs - up to 99%, according to estimates - boycotted the vote for a Kosovo Assembly in an effort to de-legitimize the Albanian-led movement toward Kosovo's political independence. The mob violence that erupted against some Serbian populations last March confirmed for many Serbs that there was little hope for a genuine multi-ethnic society in Kosovo. Serb leader and parlimentary candidate Oliver Ivanovic urged Serbs to vote, "It is the right of every Serb to vote. There must exist someone who will speak in their name." Most others, however, backed a boycott, which was also supported by political and church leaders in neighboring Serbia. UN Administrator Soren Jessen-Petersen lamented the low Serb turnout, which he ascribed to outside interference and intimidation. BBC News has more. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has an elaborate website on the Kosovo elections, which are being supervised by the local Central Election Commission. The website of the governing authority, the United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo, can be found here.

AP is reporting that the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Ohio voters who use provisional ballots must cast those ballots in their own precincts, overruling a contrary lower-court decision that would have counted them so long as they were cast in the correct county, and upholding a policy originally announced by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican. As reported by JURIST's Paper Chase in this morning's edition of Election watch, US Department of Justice lawyers had argued before the court yesterday in support of the state position.

UPDATE: AP now has more. Ohio Democrats, who had argued that the Ohio rule was too restrictive and an attempt to suppress the vote, are considering an appeal but have not yet decided to file. The Ohio Voter Protection Coalition offers background on their initial lawsuit against Secretary of State Blackwell. The original Directive at issue, 2004-33, provided for "the casting and counting of provisional ballots only for individuals who have moved from one Ohio precinct to another and seek to cast provisional ballots in the precinct in which they now reside…and can convince the poll worker workers that they are now eligible to vote in the new precinct". An analysis of the successful brief filed by Blackwell with the Sixth Circuit is available here from Edward Foley, Director of the Election Law @ Moritz program at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law.

UPDATE-2: The Sixth Circuit order is now online here [PDF], courtesy of Professor Rick Hasen's Election Law blog. The appeal court's opinion has not yet been released.

UPDATE-3: Professor Edward Foley, Director of the Election Law @ Moritz project at Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University, offers this analysis of the ruling.

The US Supreme Court has rejected a bid by independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader to reverse a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that prevented him from being placed on the state's election ballot. Nader's bid to be placed on the ballot had originally been rejected by the PA Commonwealth Court following their finding that over 32,000 of the signatures on the Nader campaign's election petitions were invalid. After the state Supreme Court upheld that ruling Nader appealed to the US Supreme Court, charging that the rejection of signatures from individuals not registered to vote was a violation of their First Amendment right to freedom of expression and association. The Court has yet to rule on a similar appeal filed by Nader in the state of Ohio. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the PA appeal. AP has more.

UPDATE: The Supreme Court's Order is now online here [PDF].

French prosecutors initiated proceedings Saturday that will require French investigating magistrate Sophie Clement to decide within the next 6 weeks whether former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet should be tried in absentia for "illegal confinement accompanied or followed by acts of torture" of French citizens that disappeared under Pinochet's rule in the 1970s. The prosecutors began pursuing the possible trial of Pinochet following the Chilean government's removal of Pinochet's immunity for acts allegedly committed during Operation Condor. In related news, Fernando Melgarejo Bisama, Pinochet's former security chief, was arrested in Los Angeles this week following Judge Robert J. Barrett's rejection of his appeal for asylum. Bisama admitted to standing by while torture was performed on prisoners. Bisama said that he feared for his life if he was returned to Chile due to threats of reprisal against his action. Bisama is appealing the decision that would expel him from the United States. JURIST's Paper Chase has more on the ongoing Pinochet matter. BBC News has more on the French proceedings against Pinochet. The San Diego Union Tribune has more on Bisama.

EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana pledged over $100 million (USD) to the African Union Saturday to help finance the regional organization's peacekeeping efforts in Sudan. As previously reported by JURSIT's Paper Chase here, the AU has expanded the number of peacekeepers in the region in an attempt to quell the ongoing violence in the Darfur region. The payment will receive offical approval Monday; Solana indicated that along with individual donations from EU member nations, the EU will end up financing more than half of the AU force's budgeted $221 million (USD). JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the situation in Sudan. The Sudan Tribune has more.

A US Army captain has filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Manhattan to block his upcoming deployment to Iraq. Jay J. Ferriola claims in court papers filed Friday that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld unlawfully seeks to retain his services in the Army after he resigned in June following eight years enlistment. The so-called stop loss enlistment extensions Ferriola is challenging have been the target of legal challenges in the past. Ferriola, a New York resident, received news this week that he was to report Monday for active duty with the 306th Military Police Battalion for a 18-month mission in Iraq. The lawsuit claims that Ferriola never received an official response to his request for resignation and asks the court to approve the resignation. An emergency hearing is schedule for 4PM ET Sunday. AP has more here.

Republicans in Ohio are aggressively challenging voter registrations in the state in the run-up to the November 2 election. On Friday, they challenged about 35,000 registrations, about 14,000 of them in Cleveland's Cuyahoga County. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer has more. Also in Ohio, Justice Department lawyers told a federal appeals court Friday that state Democrats have no right to challenge the state Attorney General's ruling that registered voters can only vote in their proper precinct. AP has more.... In Hawaii, State Elections head Dwayne Yoshina has ruled that Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader failed to submit the required 3,711 signatures necessary to put his name on the Hawaii ballot. An attorney for the Nader campaign has already filed an appeal in the state Circuit Court. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has more. Proceedings in the appeal will begin Monday... The ACLU is claiming that some South Dakotans might be disenfranchised on polling day because county officials in the state wrongly rejected their voter registration applications. AP has more.... Consistent with national trends already reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, some 2000 lawyers in Pennsylvania are expected to be observing at the polls on November 2. AP has more.... Colorado, Florida, and Maryland are also in the legal spotlight this weekend in the countdown to the national vote, now less than 2 weeks away. AP has more on ongoing election-related legal disputes in those states.