Serbia’s presidential elections to be announced on Thursday

(RTK2)

A table in the hall of Serbian Parliament that was placed by its staff during Wednesday afternoon is a sign to journalists that presidential elections will be announced at the earliest time possible. All the doubts were cleared by the Serbian Parliament Speaker with the statement that presidential elections will be announced on Thursday at 13:00hrs.

After the decision of Serbian Constitutionals Court that manner of verifying results in Kosovo was not in compliance with law, the question comes up how will these elections be organised this time around in Kosovo, RTK2 asked.

“All the elections in Kosovo are under serious doubts for irregularities that were the practice so far, for which I hope that will stop with these elections. In case the ballots are counted in the adequate manner, in case the elections are truly regular, which was not the case with the ones so far, then there will not be of extra relevance where these ballots will be counted, be it in Kosovo itself or in Raska,” Nenad Maksimovic of CPT organisation said.

The practice to date in Raska is unconstitutional, the other RTK2 interlocutor, Dusan Radakovic, confirmed. However, he emphasised that problems while counting ballots in Kosovo are of also of different nature.

“Realistically looking at it, it is unconstitutional to have elections somewhere else and count them in another town. I do not see a problem even if they have to be counted in Raska because we have monitored these elections, and I know that this process was conducted very well with the OSCE. There were major problems with people in the election lists, the voters. There were very strange election lists and so on. People had to wait in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë for four hours in order to be able to cast their votes. This was really … since they reduced the number of polling stations and then they left half of Mitrovica/Mitrovicë in a single polling station, etc. Although there was a big turnout, many people who wanted to cast their vote gave up last time,” stated Dusan Radakovic of Advocacy Centre for Democratic Culture.

Serbs in Kosovo are eligible to vote in Serbian elections even according to the law and Constitution of Kosovo. A number of them interviewed by RTK2 agreed that they should turn out in these elections.

Serbian elections conducted so far in Kosovo were facilitated and monitored by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation.

“Even during the last elections the OSCE Mission in Kosovo was asked to assist the ballot collection process in Kosovo. When the date of this year’s presidential elections will be officially announced, we will discuss with the parties and act accordingly further,” the OSCE Mission in Kosovo told RTK2.

Since the presidential elections still have not been announced, it remains on us to wait and during the coming days try to get answers to the questions if this election process will be significantly different from the last one, RTK2 concluded its news story.

Public hearing on amendments to Law on RTK held

(RTK2) 

The Committee for Public Administration, Local Government and Media held a public hearing on amendments to the Law on Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK).

Some of the recommendations are that RTK should be financed through prepayment, to reduce the number of members of the Board of Directors, and to complete digitalization with IPA [Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance] funds.

A new way of financing the public broadcaster is envisaged with amendments to the Law on RTK.

“The main part will be collected from prepayment and it will be used for news, entertainment, cultural program, which are directly related to the editorial policy of RTK. One part of the budget, 0.4% will come from the state budget and these funds will be paid to education, sports program, the program of national interest, and other programs that are not related to the editorial policy,” said Xhevahire Izmaku, Chairwoman of the Assembly Committee for Public Administration, Local Government and Media.

The European Commission recommended that the financing from the public budget should be reduced, and that the manner of appointment and dismissal of the Director General should not change.

“The European Commission considers that RTK does not need to be fully financed by the state, to the extent that is allocated 0.4% of the budget, which is a big amount. We insist that Article regulating the appointment and dismissal of the General Director of RTK to remain in an approximate form, as in other public institutions,” said Syzana Bytyqi, a representative of the EC in Kosovo.

From the Independent Media of the Commission stressed the issue of funding digitalisation is not covered with the draft law. While the Association of Independent Electronic Media of Kosovo (AMPEK) suggested using IPA funds for that.

“This is an issue that will follow RTK for years. It is being discussed about the transmitter, while there is no investment plan. For as much as I have noted, this will be charged to RTK, whose budget is insufficient,” said Adnan Merovci of IMC.

“Although we have requested a few times so far, we still do not know why this government or the Independent Media Commission are not in favour of applying for digitalization on behalf of RTK for IPA funds. Montenegro and Serbia have used these funds for digitalization, while due to the unaccountability of public bodies we are where we are and digitalization has not yet been done,” said Ardita Zejnullahu of AMPEK.

The Institute for Advanced Studies (GAP) recommends that the number of members of the Board of Directors RTK is reduced from 11 to 7, while media representatives highlight that RTK should seriously deal with investigative journalism.

Ambassador Viets calls for ratification of demarcation

(RTK1) 

German Ambassador to Kosovo, Angelika Viets, spoke about demarcation. During a visit to Ferizaj/Urosevac municipality, Viets called for ratification of the agreement.

Viets added that demarcation is a condition for liberalisation, while she said that they are convinced that the agreement is entirely alright.

“We know that there are still two more visa liberalisation criteria that must be met, and which were not met by the Government of Kosovo. This is the reason why we think that one of the criteria that need to be met now is ratification of the agreement on demarcation with Montenegro, for which Kosovo took obligations over since 2013. For this matter, my appeal today is to ratify the demarcation agreement, because from our point of view, we also had an expert who got engaged for demarcation with Montenegro, we are completely convinced that the agreement is alright,” Viets stated.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said that the report of Commission for measuring of the territory will be approved on Friday’s Government meeting. He also said that delays in ratifying the demarcation also delay liberalisation of visa. According to him, Kosovo institutions are not interested to prolong this issue.

Online version of RTK also quoted the Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli as saying that session on demarcation will be called next week, and that there are no alternatives but its ratification.

Mogherini changes agenda, arrives in Kosovo on Saturday

(Insajderi) 

High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, started her visit to the Western Balkans countries on Wednesday. However, her route to Kosovo has been postponed for a day. This will happen because the visit planned to happen on Friday in Prishtinë/Pristina she will in fact happen on Saturday. Mogherini has left Kosovo at the end of her visit list to Balkan countries.

As it is reported on the official EU website, she will also visit Mitrovicë/Mitrovica town.

Campaign on prevention of illegal migration launched

(Most monitored broadcasters, RTK1)

Ministry of Interior launched the awareness campaign on prevention of illegal migration of Kosovars. On this occasion, Minister of Interior Skender Hyseni said that Kosovo has fulfilled many criteria for visa liberalisation and that ratification of demarcation with Montenegro has remained to be done. He said that this ratification will be done very soon.

On the other hand, Head of the European Union Office in Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, said that 70 thousand citizens of Kosovo sought asylum in European countries during 2014.

According to her, this number has significantly in 2016.

Vetëvendosje ready for elections

(Summary of Klan Kosova Zone B show)

Zgjim Hyseni of Vetëvendosje Movement said that Kosovo Government has lost its legitimacy. Hyseni made this statement in Klan Kosova Zone B show, while he added that it has been a while that the political entity he represents was ready for elections since, according to him, no promise made by the current government has not been met.

“Vetëvendosje is ready for elections for a while now. It has been a long time since any of the big promises of the Government have not been met. This Government has no legitimacy. This Government has lost its legitimacy. Aside from legitimacy, now it also lacks legality. This Government is a violator of Constitutional Court,” Hyseni said.

“Whether Demarcation passes or not, we do not lay our hopes much on Srpska List. The approach of Srpska List is an indication that they have returned. Srpska List wants the Constitutional Court judgment not to have any effect on drafting of the Association,” he added.

He also expressed his and Vetëvendosje’s stance regarding the issue of border demarcation with Montenegro.

“I guarantee that Vetëvendosje Movement’s stance has not changed, but it remains to be seen what the forms for contradiction the demarcation are,” Hyseni continued.

“I am not aware of the stance of other opposition parties, but we are ready and we will invite them to cooperate in contradicting the demarcation, both AAK and NISMA. We will oppose demarcation. We will fight adoption of this agreement. Will there be protests, or will there be gas, I cannot predict this,” he ended.