A week before the early parliamentary elections in Kosovo, Pristina authorities and the international community completely ignored Serb requests related to the regularity of the voting. That is the reason why the boycott of elections becomes more realistic option for our compatriots.
Even the Government of Serbia has not called Serbs to go to the polls on Sunday, because the official Belgrade also supports their requirements. As stated, they requested:
1. Removal of all symbols of the so-called Republic of Kosovo from the ballots.
2. Forming of the electoral committees in municipalities according to the ethnic composition, instead of current discriminatory practice against the Serbs.
3. Not to increase the electoral threshold for minorities up to 70,000 votes.
First Deputy Prime Minister, Ivica Dacic confirmed that Belgrade is dissatisfied with the way Pristina grossly misused agreements from the Brussels: “I think that all conditions should be fulfilled, so that the Serbs would participate. We keep talking about a status -neutral agreement, and then they make ballots with the status marks. On the other hand, the government wishes that our citizens vote, because in such a way they would achieve important political role.”
The Mayors of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo uniquely reiterated that due to the new rules imposed by the Central Election Commission (CEC), there are no conditions for participation of the Serbs in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
They estimated as totally unacceptable that the Serbs, in addition to the guaranteed 10 seats in the parliament, must win another 70,000 votes (out of 130,000 people who live in Kosovo), to win one more seat. “This is the hypocrisy of institutions that so “honestly” want to integrate the Serbian people in the system, which even they don’t respect. We call on the international community to actively involve in the resolution of problems that are prerequisite of participation of Serbs and non-Albanians in the elections. The consequences of the boycott would be devastating in terms of the failure of democracy, and would lead to ‘bringing in question’ the implementation of the Brussels agreements,” say mayors of ten Serbian municipalities.
Although the representatives of the Serbian list, in recent days talked with almost all the most influential members of the international community, according to unofficial information, the diplomats are not ready to influence the CEC and help the Serbs in meeting their requirements.
Displaced do not vote
On Sunday officially began voting of displaced persons from Kosovo and it will last until Wednesday. Only about 30,000 voters registered for the elections, although there are more than 200,000 displaced persons who are entitled to vote. “The people are demoralized. They left Kosovo, leaving the property, and many of them are now suffering consequences of the devastated floods. Even if all 200,000 IDPs would register for voting, I’m sure that the CEC would refuse 180,000 applications. So far, they refused even 12,000, out of 30,000 applications. It would be incorrect to invite displaced to vote when the Serbian list in Kosovo terminated campaign,” says Aleksandar Erac, Head of the office for K&M in Kraljevo.
