- Kurti: Content is more important than deadline for reaching agreement with Serbia (KTV)
- CEC decides to recount over 300 polling stations (KTV)
- Forty-thousand invalid ballots (KTV)
- Serbs explain how Srpska Lista intimidated them in election process (RTK)
- Philips says that border change idea is dead (KTV)
LVV-LDK coalition welcomed by analysts and citizens (KTV) - EULEX report: Tackling high-profile cases remains slow (GazetaExpress)
- Dacic: Photos with Albanian flag legalize Greater Albania (N1)
- Protests against the MHPP continue in Donja Bitinja village (Kossev)
News
Kurti: Content is more important than deadline for reaching agreement with Serbia
(KTV)
On Wednesday, at the new premises of the U.S. Embassy in Prishtinë/Pristina, the leader of Vetëvendosje Movement Albin Kurti and the chairmanship member Glauk Konjufca met with the US Ambassador to Germany Richard A. Grenell and with the US Ambassador to Kosovo Philip S. Kosnett. This has been announced on Vetëvendosje’s official Facebook page.
“Initially, Ambassador Grenell congratulated the leadership of Vetëvendosje on winning the Sunday, October 6 parliamentary elections, and he wanted to listen to their opinion and stance regarding the possibilities for an agreement with Serbia, prior to his trip to Belgrade. Grenell underlined that a missing agreement between Kosovo and Serbia is the key obstacle to foreign investors to the Kosovo economy,” Vetëvendosje announced.
Kurti expressed his gratitude for the role and support of the U.S. to Kosovo both in war and peace, and his willingness to as the new Prime Minister of Kosovo deepen the cooperation with the United States.
He agreed with Ambassador Grenell that Kosovo needs economic development and foreign investments, but the obstacles to it are high corruption in the Government, which creates insecurity that frightens businesses, widespread poverty in population that keeps the aggregate demand low, and the difficult access to finance for businesses, due to high loan interests at the banks.
“With regard to the dialogue with Serbia, Kurti said that the content and process of the agreement is more important for sustainability of the agreement than its timeline. At the end of the open and constructive meeting, the interlocutors agreed that new government in Kosovo should be formed as soon as possible, and that they will continue their frequent and regular communication,” the VV post ends.
CEC decides to recount over 300 polling stations
(KTV)
The Central Election Commission (CEC) has decided in favour of recounting 303 polling stations, based on recommendation of the Count and Results Centre.
“This is not about any manipulation, but about a technical error that occurred in printing out the forms. It must be stated publically and we should not hide ourselves. The forms were printed out incorrectly. In the coming days it will be revealed who is to blame. The Secretariat is in charge of printing materials that were disseminated throughout Kosovo. The same forms were disseminated, and the same ones contain the technical error, so that entities were listed on ballot papers and on the forms, but the section for the first entity was missing. As a consequence, some polling station committee members whose UV lamps worked wrote them down correctly, while others, whose UV lamps did not work, proceeded from the second entity, which caused confusion. Up to now, the Count and Results Centre has found 303 polling stations where forms have been filled in this way. In conclusion, those forms, be it today or in a month, cannot be proceeded as such, because they have been filled out incorrectly. We have been recommended to recount 303 polling stations in total,” Valdete Daka, CEC chairperson, said.
In the meantime, Bilall Sherifi of Social Democratic Initiative said they have welcomed the decision to recount 303 polling stations for October 6th elections, but he added that recount should be done for each polling station in the country.
Forty-thousand invalid ballots
(KTV)
The present result of the parliamentary elections could probably be different if there were not so many invalid ballots. However, their number is considered high and concerning.
According to preliminary results of the CEC, 40,732 invalid ballots came out of Sunday’s elections.
Since the results have not yet been certified, CEC has not identified the nature of invalidation of votes.
However, this Commission has analysed over 7,000 invalid ballots for the 2017 parliamentary elections. The analysis, according to the CEC, shows that invalidity can be categorized into three groups.
Failure to reduce these ballots, according to the Kosovo Democratic Institute, is due to insufficient voter information for citizens.
According to KDI, the municipalities with the most invalid ballots are Gllogovc/Glogovac, Skenderaj/Srbica, Pejë/Pec, and Lipjan/Lipljane.
In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the number of such ballots was 30,725, while in the previous elections there were 42,554 invalid ballots.
Serbs explain how Srpska Lista intimidated them in election process
(RTK)
The EU Observation Mission, in its report on early parliamentary elections in Kosovo, speaks about the pressure and intimidation of Serb community citizens, so that they would vote for Srpska Lista, which is backed by Belgrade authorities.
Kosovo Serb citizens spoke about the situations they faced. A woman, who lives in one of the Serb majority municipalities in the south of Ibër River, and who chose not to disclose her identity to the public, testified to Radio Free Europe about the pressure that was put on her family.
“On Sunday, on the Election Day (on 6th October ), at about 6:45 pm, my father received a telephone call and was told that he had not carried out his civic duty, and that he should urgently go to the polling station and vote for a certain political option. He did that, because he works for Serb institutions, and he was scared that he could risk losing his job because he did not turn out in elections. My mother also did the same thing,” said the Serb woman, whose identity is known to Radio Free Europe.
Her story has been confirmed by the EU Observation Mission’s preliminary report, which was presented on 8th October in Prishtinë/Pristina.
Petar Miletic, a member of the opposition movement of Free Citizens and former Kosovo MP, stated to Radio Free Europe that all Kosovo Serbs are aware of the intimidation of those who are not candidates of Srpska Lista and of the bribe for Serb community citizens so that they vote only for that political option.
“It is impossible for a List, under a democratic atmosphere and procedure, to win 95 per cent of the vote. This happens only under serious dictatorships. Even some dictatorships in the world currently, do not manage to obtain 95 per cent of the vote. So, it is clear that those were directives, in some cases there was pressure, in some other cases with bribes, and in most of them it was not with money but with jobs or with any other empowerment granted to them by the state of Serbia. Everyone who lives in Kosovo is well aware of what happened there, but they are not willing to speak publically about how they subdued to the pressure,” Miletic highlighted.
Research about this pressure was conducted by the Belgrade based Security Policy Centre at the beginning of this year. Isidora Stakic, researcher at this NGO, said to Radio Free Europe that for this reason, she was not surprised by the finding of the EU Observation Mission.
“The research of the Belgrade Security Policy Centre, which we conducted in February this year, indicates that Serbs who live in Kosovo north are more scared from representatives of Serbian authorities than from Albanians,” Stakic said.
“Now, before the elections, we all have seen how voters received text messages through MTS (a mobile telephony operator), which is in ownership of the Serbian state. Those text messages read ‘Serbia calling turn out to elections and vote for Srpska Lista,” Stakic added.
So far, leaders of Srpska Lista have not responded to calls of Radio Free Europe, to respond to the findings of the EU Observation Mission.
In the early parliamentary elections in Kosovo, Srpska Lista is the absolute winner, which, according to the statement of its leader Goran Rakic, has won 98 per cent of the vote in those municipalities.
Philips says that border change idea is dead
(KTV)
A U.S. analyst says the United States must adjust its attitude towards the future government of Kosovo, in accordance with the will of the people of Kosovo.
But Professor David Phillips of Columbia University told Voice of America that even Albin Kurti has changed his attitudes over time.
In the same interview with VoA, Phillips said the idea of border change is dead and when negotiations with Serbia resume, Kosovo will go to the table with a platform of territorial integrity.
LVV-LDK coalition welcomed by analysts and citizens
(KTV)
Meetings between the two parties that got most votes in last Sunday’s elections will begin on Thursday.
The nominee for Prime Minister from Vetëvendosje Movement, Albin Kurti, is convinced that they will have no problems to co-operate with LDK.
“Finally, citizens not only voted, but their vote was a call for change and punishment of bad governance. Citizens also defined the new Government, which should be formed by the past opposition. There is no other alternative for me. The LDK-Vetëvendosje coalition has many challenges ahead, but it should have one interest only: the interest of Kosovo citizens,” Osmani wrote among other things.
Experts of political affairs in Kosovo share this view.
According to Arton Demhasaj, it will not be difficult for these two parties to reach a co-governing agreement.
On the other hand, Përparim Kryeziu says that the rumours about the failure of the coalition between LVV and LDK are tendentious.
Citizens see the coalition between Vetëvendosje and LDK as an opportunity for change.
EULEX report: Tackling high-profile cases remains slow
(GazetaExpress)
The EU Rule of Law Mission – EULEX has presented on Wednesday the findings of its third systemic and thematic monitoring report on the Kosovo judiciary to the Chair of the Kosovo Judicial Council, Skender Cocaj, the Deputy Head of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, Arben Ismajli, the Director of the Kosovo Correctional Service, Nehat Thaci, who was representing the Ministry of Justice, and representatives of the EU Office in Kosovo/EUSR and the US Embassy in Kosovo.
During the presentation of the report, the Acting Head of EULEX, Bernd Thran, said that the robust monitoring of selected cases has proven to be an effective tool for assessing the local justice system’s compliance with Kosovo law and human rights standards. Presenting the main findings of the report, the Head of the Case Monitoring Unit, Hubert van Eck Koster, said that EULEX noted a positive trend in the court hearings that it monitored, with a noticeable increase in productive over unproductive hearings. Commenting on the pace of tackling high-profile cases formerly dealt with by EULEX, Van Eck Koster noted that this “remains in general slow”.
The report, which builds upon two similar reports issued earlier this year by EULEX under the framework of the Justice 2020 initiative, also includes tailored recommendations to address the issues identified through EULEX’s robust monitoring.
Concluding the presentation of the report, the Acting Head of EULEX said: “We hope that the findings and recommendations included in the report will be a helpful tool at the disposal of the Kosovo institutions to strengthen the rule of law, carry out reforms, and build on past and ongoing efforts to improve the justice system.” EULEX’s Case Monitoring Unit assesses the functioning of the Kosovo judiciary in terms of procedural, legal and human rights compliance. The assessment is carried out through robust systemic and thematic monitoring of selected criminal and civil cases, including high-profile cases and cases previously dealt with by EULEX. The Mission monitors the entire chain of the criminal justice system, namely on police, prosecutorial and judicial level. “It is a good report. According to its findings, there is progress”, said the Chair of the Kosovo Judicial Council, Skender Cocaj, noting the importance of the fact that the report also includes concrete recommendations on how to address remaining challenges. The Deputy Head of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, Arben Ismajli, welcomed the report, “which includes a number of straight-forward recommendations to enhance the Kosovo prosecutorial system.”
Dacic: Photos with Albanian flag legalize Greater Albania
(N1)
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic fiercely condemned the fact that the flag of Albania was displayed during a meeting between Kosovo Albanian political leader Albin Kurti and Norwegian officials.
Kurti, whose Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party won more votes than its rivals at Sunday’s parliamentary elections, met with Norwegian Ambassador Jens Eric Grondahl and Foreign Ministry envoy for the Balkans Arne Sanes Bjornstad in Pristina with a large Albanian flag displayed in the room.
Dacic said that the flag shows support for the idea of creating a Greater Albania. “Self-Determination leader Albin Kurti is known as an advocate of a so-called Greater Albania. Anyone who meets with the man aspiring to become the prime minister of so-called Kosovo with the flag of Albania is legalizing the idea of a Greater Albania, that is the annexation of Kosovo to Albania,” Dacic is quoted as saying in a press release.
It added that all UN member states, especially European countries, have to refrain from granting legitimacy to those provocations.
The media in Pristina said that Kurti keeps a flag of Albania displayed in his office but the ambassadors of Germany and the United States were not photographed in that office when they met with him.
Protests against the MHPP continue in Donja Bitinja village
(Kossev)
The residents of the village of Donja Bitinja in the municipality of Strpce continue with the protest against the construction of a mini hydroelectric power plant on the Lepenac River today. However, this time, the protest again resulted in an incident with dozens of villagers, including women and children injured.
The residents of Donja Bitinja village, both ethnic Serbs and Albanians of Strpce, have been protesting against the construction of the MHPP on the Lepenac and its tributaries for months now.
Yesterday, however, a conflict occurred between protesters trying to prevent the construction of the MHPP and members of the Special Police unit from Urosevac.
Dozens of people, including children, were injured in the conflict due to pepper spray exposure, while Kosovo media published disturbing photos yesterday of very young children receiving medical care. The same protest continued today, however, this time with KFOR’s presence, KTV reported. At the same time, police officials told the locals that the situation from yesterday would not be repeated today. The members of NGO KDI, who will be assisting locals with their lawsuit against the authorities, also joined the locals at the protest.
A similar incident occurred in early May this year when a conflict occurred between Kosovo police and locals protesting against the construction of a mini hydroelectric power plant in the Obe Reke site. According to locals, police used excessive force, one protestor’s nose and another protestor’s hand were broken. The police then reacted with a statement confirming that a confrontation had occurred and that tear gas was used, but also claiming that no one was injured.
