Kosovo’s Central Election Commission did not respond to the alert of the Mayor of the northern Mitrovica and seven other Kosovo municipalities that, because of the new rules for determining the number of seats won, and to the detriment of the Serbian people and other non-Albanian communities, the elections scheduled on 8 June could be boycotted.
Recall, the leaders of northern Mitrovica, Leposavic, Gracanica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok, Partes, Ranilug and Klokot assessed the CEC’s decision, according to which a small number of seats for Serbs is associated with the abolition of the reserved seats, as a direct violation of the electoral legislation as well as basic principles of democracy and European values.
Vladeta Kostic, Head of the Kosovo district and one of the leading names in the Serbian List for the upcoming parliamentary elections, confirmed in a statement for Dnevnik, that yesterday Central Election Commission did not announce nor the body that CEC formed with a mission to solve this problem.
– By our opinion, they knowingly violate the law on general elections, by which on the 8th of June the vote should take place, and with the clear intention to reduce the Serbs turnout, because they got afraid of unity that is achieved between us and a chance to win a significantly higher number of mandates then the guaranteed ten – said Kostic.
Recall, the Serbian list was formed by the Independent Liberal Party, SDP – Oliver Ivanovic, and the Citizens’ Initiative “Srpska”, which brings together representatives of the ruling parties in Serbia. It is, otherwise, the entities that in the recently held local elections together won 99 per cent of votes. Asked whether eventually it may cause some dispute inside in such a built Serbian List if decided whether to call Kosovo Serbs to boycott the upcoming elections, Kostic said very clearly: It is not going to happen!
– All political groups, which make the Serbian List, are absolutely unique in this regard. Not only that, but we kept intensive mutual communication and we co-ordinate all our steps – said Kostic, with confirmation that the next steps will greatly depend on the attitude of Belgrade.
The same approach has and current Vice President of the Kosovo Parliament Petar Miletic, or the SLS official. According to him, the fact that the Serbian list is made of more political options theoretically leaves room for the dilemma of whether they will be able to take a uniformed position on whether to call for a boycott of the elections. But Miletic sincerely doubts that at this point the issue could undermine the hard achieved unity.
However Miletic drew attention to another fact of which at this point is little spoken. In the race for the Kosovo parliament, namely, are three other lists which formally represent the Serbs, which mean that in the case of withdrawal of the Serbian List, Pristina can demonstrate that in the parliament, are sitting representatives of the Serbian community.
– In other words, the eventual boycott would not affect the number itself of Serbian deputies in the Kosovo Assembly – because somehow the controversial quota of ten would be filled – but the quality certainly would – said Miletic.
Otherwise, when it comes to the attitude of the state of Serbia, President of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun explained to Dnevnik that the position of Belgrade largely will depend on whether Pristina will give up the extremely unacceptable interpretations of election law. And by this interpretation, explains Drecun, the Serbs are practically entitled to only those 10 guaranteed seats, even though, “if the current law is interpreted in a way that can only be interpreted” in the case of a large-scale turnout could win 15 or even 19 parliamentary seats. And now that is a political position and power which is not easy to impose decisions which are in conflict with interests of the Serbian people.
