OSCE Broadcast Report 06Aug2013
Ivanovic: Local elections in the north will be organized by the OSCE (RTK)
3 November local elections will be organized by the OSCE. This is stated strictly by political representatives of Kosovo north. According to them, participation in these elections entirely depends on the calls that are made to northern Serbs.
Not more than 20 per cent of the population are expected to take part in 3 November local elections that are expected to be held in the northern part of the country, as well. This is at least what the political experts in Kosovo north say. According to them, everything will depend on the clear signals that will come from the Serbian government.
Oliver Ivanovic expressed his certainty that during talks in Brussels, it was agreed that OSCE will be the organiser of elections in the north.
“OSCE will definitely take the role of organiser of elections in north and I believe that it has already started to work in this regard. Sincerely, I would be very happy if 15 to 20% of Serbs will take part in elections. This would be a very good result. Do not forget these are the first elections that are partly organised by Kosovo institutions, and this participation would be very good,” Ivanovic said.
According to Ivanovic, ballot papers in the north will not contain symbols of the Republic of Kosovo.
“I think that ballot papers and election material will be without state symbols. They will be neutral. This was our main request and I think that an agreement was reached about this matter. The ballot papers in the north will have the same form, but they will not have symbols of Republic of Kosovo, as this would be really unacceptable for the Serbs. We will anyway have a problem with the number of citizens that will turn out in elections. I am entirely confident that we will have total boycott of these elections if there are symbols in these papers,” said Ivanovic.
Interviewed by RTK, Serb citizens in the north were reserved and divided over their participation in these elections.
Few days earlier, the Central Election Commission Chairperson Valdete Daka told RTK that ballot papers will be the same all over Kosovo and that local elections in northern Kosovo will be held in accordance with Republic of Kosovo laws.
OSCE to collect Kosovo votes in Serbia and Montenegro
(Klan Kosova)
Belgrade and Prishtinë/Pristina agreed that the OSCE Mission, apart from organizing elections in the north, to also deal with collection of the votes of refugees in Serbia and Montenegro.
Sava Ilic’s house in Uglare of Gracanica/Graçanicë was left abandoned for years. Sava and other members of Ilic family left their property immediately after the war and displaced in Serbian towns, not to return still in Kosovo. Furthermore, it is not known if they will ever return here. Irrespective to this fact, Kosovo did not forget him. Ilic’s will be provided the opportunity to vote in 3 November local elections. This has made their fellow villagers in Uglare happy.
“They should be provided with the opportunity to vote. They are in fact refugees there, and they are still called Kosovo Serbs. They do not return here because the conditions the environment still hasn’t been created for this. They should cast their vote for Kosovo elections from there,” stated a Serb of Uglare.
OSCE Mission in Kosovo, which is authorized to organize elections in northern municipalities and of the displaced Serbs, confirmed on Tuesday that the latter, which are currently living in Serbia or Montenegro, will be offered by-mail-voting. It remains to be seen if the displaced Serbs will accept the offer.
This issue was discussed over the last two days in Brussels. Central Elections Commissions (CEC) Chairperson Valdete Daka, who is leading Kosovo side, told Klan Kosova over the phone that this is not a new agreement, but only specification of the Point 5 of Thaçi-Dacic Agreement that refers to elections.
Daka said that the issue of collection of votes in Serbia and Montenegro, since Kosovo Post does not have a cooperation agreement with Serbian Post.
However, there are Serbs in Kosovo that disagree with provision of the right to the displaced persons to vote on 3 November.
“The ones that displaced should not be entitled to voting. They left and never returned again, while we remained here despite everything that happened to us. All of this is sounding a bit absurd to me,” stated another local Serb resident of Uglare.
OSCE takes additional competencies for 3 November local elections
(RTK2)
New talks between Serbia and Kosovo at the experts’ level that resumed on Monday in Brussels continued on Tuesday. Prishtinë/Pristina delegation agreed for the OSCE to take additional competencies for 3 November local elections and organize collection of ballot papers of Serbs out of Kosovo, daily Tribuna wrote on Tuesday.
Both sides agreed for the OSCE to open a centre in Serbia where Kosovo Serbs may send their ballots.
IBM agreement implementation discussed in Brussels
(RTK)
Kosovo and Serbia working groups are continuing talks in Brussels on the issue of implementation of the agreement on Integrated Border Management (IBM).
Political advisor to the head of Kosovo negotiation team Edita Tahiri, Dren Zeka said in Tuesday’s morning discussions Kosovo negotiators and representatives of the European Union have been involved, while the afternoon meeting was held with the Serbian side.
“The talks about permanent IBM facilities were on the agenda of the meeting and these facilities are expected to be built by EU funds. We discussed about the pace of this agreement’s implementation. You know that the agreement is implemented in six border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia and we can say that we have concrete results of implementation of this agreement,” Zeka said.
According to him, during Monday, Prishtinë/Pristina and Belgrade working groups discussed about organization of elections, telecommunications and energy. According to Zeka, the OSCE’s facilitating role regarding local elections in the northern part of the country was the key topic of discussion.
“In this respect, we discussed about facilitation of elections that are included in these four municipalities. Elections will be held according to legislation of Kosovo and CEC is the institution that organizes elections, while OSCE will facilitate them,” Zeka stated.
These discussions are expected to continue over the coming days.
RTK crew visited “Dheu i Bardhë” border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia. It reported that Integrated Border Management agreement seems to have very good results at this border point. This was confirmed by law enforcement authorities, as well as citizens that were crossing this border point.
Voter list coordinator Adnan Rrustemi resigns his post
(KTV)
Voter list coordinator at the Central Election Commission (CEC) Adnan Rrustemi resigned his post. Rrustemi confirmed his irrevocable resignation to KTV, saying that he is doing this due to pressure put on him by the CEC Chairperson Valdete Daka.
“CEC in line with laws, CEC regulations and operational plan of 27 July started voters’ registration of out of country voters, while now, as a consequence of talks in Brussels, the chairperson put pressure for blocking these applications that are online. Yesterday, without any reason, she requested removal of these applications from the website. The Secretariat has fallen prey of this pressure and has suspended this registration. As a sign of disagreement, because I am that these forms are in compliance with CEC regulations and in contradiction with this, I have presented my resignation to CEC Secretariat Chief of Executive Officer,” Rrustemi told KTV.
In the meantime, KTV learned that CEC Secretariat received Rrustemi’s letter. Nonetheless, contact with Enis Halimi, CEC Secretariat CEO was not possible.
CEC Chairperson Valdete Daka is taking part in talks in Brussels’ talks in the framework of technical groups regarding organization of 3 November local elections.
Civil society criticized a working group established by Daka as non-transparent. This group is tasked to reach a technical agreement with the OSCE on the details of its role in these elections.
Thaçi: All parallel structures will be dissolved
(TV21)
Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi told TV21 that if 3 November elections will also be successful in the north, than full implementation of the agreement reached with Serbia will be inevitable for everyone. In an interview with TV21, PM Thaçi did not exclude difficulties that might come up during implementation of the agreement into practice.
TV21: Another round of technical talks between Kosovo and Serbia concluded this week. Parties have did not indicate any concrete results for the discussed topics. Do you think that there are flounders in this regard?
Thaçi: I think that it is a process that is going well. Of course, there are dilemmas and different questions over the course of this important process for participation of northern Serbs on 3 November elections. There are obscurities on the agreement that we have reached by the professional teams and these obscurities are being addressed in the form of issues that are being solved every day in Brussels. I want to thank Brussels for their constructive and very responsible work, as well as for its work during these summer days in order to settle all the details in order for us to have a successful process on 3rd November. The OSCE is also working maximally within its capacities to facilitate or monitor the election process in the north, therefore I can freely say that there are different dilemmas, but we are on the right track of having full success on 3rd November and a solid participation of northern Serbs in elections.
TV21: How do you see Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, in general?
Thaçi: The dialogue process started for 7-8 months now. An extremely important agreement was reached on 19 April. This agreement has started to implement in many segments and spheres of life. It enjoys the support of the entire democratic world. It enjoys the unique support of the European Union, United States and NATO. This agreement was missing for normalization of relations between the state of Kosovo and Serbia. Initial effects of this agreement are being noted in the north, starting from free movement of police and customs officers and their subsidiary teams that work on border points 1 and 31. There is still room for work as far as free movement, but we are on the right track to complete this process on time. Full functionalization of the justice system, according to Kosovo laws and Constitution, will start soon. All police stations of parallel police structures have been closed. Lot more remains to be done in the electoral process. I believe that many things will depend on the 3rd November elections. If we will show successful in 3 November elections than full implementation of the agreement reached with Serbia will be inevitable by all.
TV21: Is it likely that all parallel institutions in the north will be closed by September?
Thaçi: There will not be any deviation from the 19 April Agreement. All parallel structures will be dissolved. The recruitment process of persons in institutions of the Republic of Kosovo will be done on entirely individual basis. This recruitment will be verified by the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo and EULEX. We will respect the Agreement in its integrity. This Agreement is in compliance with Kosovo Constitution and laws. It was voted by two-thirds of the Kosovo Assembly MPs. The amnesty issue has also been concluded and I believe that it was an additional encouragement for Serb citizens to integrate in the institutional life of the Republic of Kosovo. So, it is the start of recognizing the new reality in Kosovo, but also something new that was missing over the last 14 years in Kosovo. In other words, Serbs in the north for the first time will take part in Kosovo elections, which will be held according to Kosovo laws and Western standards.
TV21: The possibility of Serbs to turn out with a single list on 3 November elections is being discussed these days. How democratic would such an action be?
Thaçi: I think that we must respect democracy principles of free competition, of the different opinion and political pluralism. I do not trust the idea of a single list of a community, and I do not believe that this might happen. We had similar ideas earlier as well, but I hope and believe that we will have a spectrum of Serb political parties, civic initiatives and/or independent candidates; therefore I believe that within the Serb community we will not only have political pluralism and competition, but also a strong race for local elections. Although there are ideas of a single list, I do not trust them.
