Pristina, Belgrade – Serbian List the first day of the official campaign for Kosovo’s early parliamentary elections, “frozen” the pre-election activities primarily in northern Kosovo, and then south of the Ibar/Ibër River.
Its leaders, President Aleksandar Jablanović and the first candidate on the list Branimir Stojanovic, accuse the Central Election Commission of Kosovo that it violated Kosovo election law by changing the composition of electoral committees and by the manner of distribution of seats, while the mayors of northern Kosovo do not accept the label of the self-proclaimed state of Kosovo on the ballot. The Serbian list does not exclude the possibility of a boycott of elections on June 8th.
Political analyst Dusan Janjic claims that this is “the cheapest and most efficient form of campaign to attract the attention of voters” and that there is nothing of boycott, because, otherwise, “Belgrade would pay a high price for non-compliance with the Brussels agreement.”
– CEC allows itself to change the electoral rules for the minority communities against the Law on General Elections. This has questioned the campaign that lasts only eight days. We have addressed the international circles in Pristina and we have the support of the Serbian state in everything we do – says Aleksandar Jablanović to Danas.
Branimir Stojanovic believes that the decision of the CEC should be the “red light” for the international community, if it wants implementation of the Brussels agreement. He argues that “mounted elections are consequence of the fear due to success of the Serbian List, which managed to organize and motivate the people.”
– Few days ago the CEC formed a special working group that is working on a new guide for the elections. The goal is to find an electoral model that will provide everything that was not achieved by amending the constitution and electoral law. A new procedure for determining the number of seats introduces an invisible border, by which Serbs can get 10 guaranteed seats, while for the eleventh mandate they need practically 70 000 votes. The CEC insisted on the composition of electoral committees which goes in favour of Albanians. In this situation, only the EU and the U.S. can react, where Pristina last months lobbied for their silence about the new election rules – explained to Danas, Nenad Rikalo, a member of the CEC.
According to Dusan Janjic, “the whole story spins to cover up poor judgment of those who have promised that the Serbs, with more than 20 seats, will be the second power in the new Kosovo parliament.” Janjic says that from the Kosovo election law is clear that for the threshold of five per cent is required 35 000 votes with which you get 10 guaranteed seats, and for each subsequent mandate is needed another 3 000 votes, which would mean 13 to 15 MPS with the maximum turnout.
– One of the reasons for poor judgment is the fact that the Serbian side, especially Belgrade does not know the Albanian political scene. Thaci, like Vucic, in a coalition of three lists PDK, LDK and AAK goes for the 60 per cent of mandates. It should be borne in mind that the international community is not so much interested in the parliamentary elections as it was at the end of last year for local, so Belgrade does not have the capacity to exert pressure on Pristina – explains Dusan Janjic.
Djuric assumed the office
– Belgrade will soon announce in regards to the problems for which the Serbian List “frozen” the election campaign – said the adviser of President of Serbia Marko Djuric. That was all he could say before taking office of the Head of the Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija yesterday afternoon.
DSS for boycott
The DSS Provincial Committee called on Serbs from Kosovo to boycott the elections, “announced by the self-proclaimed president of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga.”The DSS excluded from the party Slobodan Dimitrijevic and Miodrag Račić because they are members of the Municipal Election Commission.
