Until now used method of determining the results of voting in Kosovo and Metohija for the elections in Serbia was not in accordance with the law, according to the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia (CCRS) in June 2016. The upcoming presidential election will be the first after this decision of the Constitutional Court of Serbia. According to the interpretation of the CCRS, a decision that the material from the polling stations in Kosovo transfers to Raška and Vranje, where the votes were counted, was not in accordance with the law.
In the parliamentary elections of 2014 and 2016 the Republican Election Commission (REC) gave almost identical instructions for conducting the elections in Kosovo and Metohija, by which it envisaged that the elections shall be conducted in a way where after a ballot, ballot boxes and unused ballots will be sealed and transferred to Raška and Vranje, where the counting will take place and determine voting results.
Voting and counting of votes from Kosovo and Metohija was first conducted in this way in 2012. It was a way to overcome the situation created after the self-proclamation of independence of Kosovo in 2008.
Serbian Radical Party asked the immediate assessment of the legality of this vote even before the parliamentary elections in 2014. Since the CCRS deliberated for more than two years the request, its decision of June 2016 could not have the legal effect on the elections that have been held in 2014, and then 2016. This was a response of CCRS to Insajder.net and actually has stated that the process of transfer of electoral material and the counting of votes from Kosovo and Metohija was illegal.
“The decision of the CCRS about disagreement of the provisions of Articles 9 and 10 of the Instructions does not produce concrete legal consequences because the application of the instruction was exhausted by the elections conducted for deputies, which were called for 16 March 2014”, said the CCRS for Insajder.net.
Answering the question whether the decision refers and to forthcoming elections, the CCRS said for Insajder.net: “The decision of the CCRS refers only to the general act that was subject to the review of constitutionality and legality,” therefore only the Instruction of 2014. However, it is expected that in the next elections the REC will not repeat the use of the Instruction, whose provisions were marked as illegal by the CCRS.
On question of Insajder.net whether and how the OSCE will monitor the Serbian elections, the Mission of the organization in Kosovo said that the elections have not been announced and it would be premature to make any comment.
“When the elections are announced, we will talk with all the parties and decide,” say from the OSCE Mission in Kosovo for the Insajder.net.
Serbian citizens living in Kosovo have the right to vote in elections and under the laws and Constitution of Kosovo. The problem is how to find the way to use this right.
The new REC instruction was not yet passed since the elections were not called. On the phone numbers that are on the official website of the REC in previous days nobody answered.
