Serbia requests removal of Albanians of the north from voters list (Koha Ditore)
Koha Ditore reports that Serbia is making efforts to remove from the voters list 3,000 Albanians of north Mitrovica and to this end has requested the OSCE to access personal data of Albanian voters and learn about the reasons why they have been included in the voters list.
The paper writes that Serbia’s aim is to remove those few Albanian voters in municipalities with predominantly Serb population. Sources of the newspaper inside the CEC Secretariat said that two OSCE officials, under the request of Serbia, on Wednesday visited CEC to verify the creation of the voters list and requested access to personal data of the voters to see why Albanians were included in the voters list of municipality of North Mitrovica”. This has been done with justification that Brussels is requesting it.
Voters list was also a topic discussed on Wednesday in Brussels between Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovo representatives said that in this meeting Serbia did not raised concerns with the number of Albanian voters in the northern part. Kosovo officials involved in this process said that their Serbian colleagues only requested information on how the list was created.
Vulin tomorrow in Kosovo together with Vucic (Koha Ditore)
Minister without portfolio in the Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin, announced that he will be in Kosovo tomorrow together with Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
Kosovo Police informed that the arrest warrant against Vulin is still valid. “There is no change, the arrest warrant is still valid,” said for the newspaper Brahim Sadriu from the Kosovo Police while Vulin said to newspaper Vecernje Novosti that he expects his visit to go through without problems.
The north again in protests against elections (dailies)
Newspapers report few hundreds of Serbs supported from the Democratic Party of Serbia of Vojislav Kostunica, protested on Wednesday in north Mitrovica against participation in local elections of 3 November. They claimed participation in elections would be integration in the institutions of the state of Kosovo which they do not recognise. Meanwhile, the protesters said calls of Government of Serbia to the Serb community to participate in elections represent treason.
London urges political parties to be responsible (Tribuna)
British Ambassador to Pristina Ian Cliff has called on individuals and political parties not to try to manipulate elections process. According to him, European future of Kosovo will suffer if elections are not regular. He expressed support for the work of CEC on the voters list and requested that mutual visits of Serb and Kosovo officials continue.
Cliff warned that Kosovo is not Kosovo without Serbs. The representative of Great Britain said that it is vital that the scenarios of “industrial fraud” be avoided. “It is essential, European perspective of Kosovo will suffer if there are no elections according to European standards,” said Cliff.
Elections, opportunity for positive image of Kosovo (Zëri)
Norwegian Ambassador to Pristina Jan Braathau said successful elections will have a huge impact on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement negotiations and they are a good opportunity for Kosovo citizens to create a positive image. “It will affect a great deal how Brussels and other European Union countries’ capitals view and assess progress made in Kosovo”, said Braathau.
MEPs want to see a functional Assembly and independent judiciary (Tribuna)
Members of European Parliament on their first day of visit to Kosovo met separately Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi, Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuçi, and a group of Kosovo MPs.
The head of the EP delegation, Eduard Kukan, stressed the need for Kosovo to continue process of reforms, particularly in the field of judiciary. “Rule of law is one of the reforms Kosovo has to undertake. Judiciary needs to be impartial and independent. Organised crime needs to be uprooted and fight against corruption needs to continue”, said Kukan. MEPs also expressed their concern for frequent failures of Kosovo Assembly sessions.
Jahjaga requests recognition from Morocco (dailies)
Kosovo President, Atifete Jahjaga, has met with the Prime Minister of Morocco, Abdelilah Benkirane, with whom she discussed about the issue of recognizing independence of Kosovo. President Jahjaga emphasized that Kosovo is a special case and since the declaration of independence in 2008 has been recognized from more than 100 countries in the world, members of UN. She said that Kosovo is an example of good neighborhood in the region and promoter of peace and stability.
