Braathu calls for respect of everyone’s right to vote freely

(Most monitored broadcasters, KTV) 

Tensions between the Serbs during the election campaign is concerning for the Ambassador of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Jan Braathu.

He called upon representatives of all political entities to respect everyone’s right to vote freely for anyone they want.

“Let me say it clear that threats and violence have no place in countries with democratic processes. In this case, we call upon all political entities to respect everyone’s right to vote freely as they think and to ensure a free, fair, and calm election process. It would be really tragic if human’s life is lost in an election process due to increase of tensions,” Ambassador Braathu said.

In the meantime, RTK1 quoted the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Ambassador Jan Braathu, as saying that situation in Kosovo north is very fragile, and it was accompanied by some incidents Leposavic/Leposaviç.

 Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo made these comments following a visit to the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP), where, together with the representative of the Association of the Blind promoted complaints’ form in the Braille alphabet.

Head of the OSCE Mission stressed that this is happening for the first time and Kosovo is a leader in the region.

A day earlier, Association of the Blind together with the Central Elections Commission reported that blind persons will be able to vote in Braille alphabet throughout Kosovo.

Jablanovic: Srpska List is a criminal list

(RTK1)

After the incidents in north of Kosovo between supporters of Serb political entities, the chairperson of Kosovo Serbs’ Party, Aleksandar Jablanovic said that Srpska List, which is backed from Belgrade, is a criminal list.

In an interview with Radio and Television of Kosovo, Jablanovic stressed that he and his people are being unjustly attacked by the opponents from Kosovo Serb community and Belgrade officials.

“There is a criminal structure within Srpska List, composed of people who were on the run from the law in Serbia and have been hiding in Kosovo north. However, they do not hide anymore, but they freely walk the streets and have entered into criminal businesses and politics” said Jablanovic.

“Now, we are in a situation when institutions of the Republic of Serbia are threatening us just because we have different stance from these institutions. Srpska List is the biggest problem to Kosovo Serbs, and I believe that we will solve this problem on 11 June,” Jablanovic stated.

Vucic calls EU and U.S to intervene about Association

(Klan Kosova)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Aleksandar Jablanovic was not kept in detention thanks to Albanian superiors of Kosovo Police, Klan Kosova reported.

President Vucic said that Kosovo Government is publicly admitting they do not want to establish the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities. According to him, EU and the U.S. should intervene in this process.

Best preparations made for a smooth election process

(KTV) 

Four days are left until 11 June when the election process will take place in Kosovo, and the institutions in charge of providing security and ensuring peaceful and fair elections stated that they have made the best preparations for the Election Day, KTV reported.

At a roundtable which was organised by the Kosovo Law Institute, supported by the U.S. Embassy, Laura Pula, National Election Coordinator, said that on the Election Day there will be 100 prosecutors in the field, and they will operate in 38 municipalities, along with police investigators.

The only political party representative who took part in the roundtable was Albulena Haxhiu of Vetëvendosje. She said that the absence of big coalitions was the best indication that they were getting prepared to abuse citizens’ votes.

Haxhiu also asked if the Prosecutor’s Office has started investigations on around 4.000 applications that recently arrived from Serbia, but she did not receive any answer.

PDK asks citizens to pledge for their votes

(KTV)

It joined a coalition, yet, the PDK is running the election campaign alone, KTV reported.

KTV managed to record in one of the PDK rallies in Prishtinë/Pristina, where citizens were asked to pledge that they would vote for the PDK, by putting their signatures and other personal data on some lists.

On the top of the lists it reads “Yes, I pledge that I will support Fillimi i Ri për Kosovën [The New Beginning for Kosovo] and I will vote for PDK 12.”

KTV contacted some of the persons who attended the rally in Prishtinë/Pristina. They said they were not aware why they were providing the data, and that they had not signed the lists personally.

“That person who was there, at the beginning of the rally got our data and wrote them down,” one of the rally attendees said.

From other sources within PDK, KTV learned that at different rallies, PDK members were asked to vote for PDK candidates only, not for those of the coalition partners, AAK and Nisma. Over telephone, the PDK Prishtinë/Pristina Branch president, Lirak Çelaj, admitted that they have been collecting those data in their rallies. However, he did not admit that pledging through signature to vote for PDK implied pressure to vote for this political entity.

Indictment for tragic death of Xheneta Gashi expected

(KTV)

A year after the tragic death of the 4-year old Xheneta Gashi at the Prizren Historic Centre, no one has taken over responsibility for it, KTV reported.

But, until the end of this month, an indictment will be filed for one of the three officials of this municipality, against whom the investigations have been going on for a year.

This was confirmed by the Prizren Chief Prosecutor, Admir Shala, but he did not give details about the official who will be charged.

In the meantime, Hajrulla Çeku, of the nongovernmental organization “Ec ma ndryshe” said that the Historic Centre has constantly been degraded and it has now become dangerous for citizens’ lives.

Former director of urbanism, Nijazi Kryeziu, municipal directorate inspector, Bedri Bytyqi, and Bedrija Ejupagic, director of emergency, have been under investigation by the Prizren Basic Court. The three of them are accused of not taking measures for prevention of house demolition, from which Xheneta Gashi died, but they did not take measures.

Thaçi:  Elections will be fair, transparent and democratic

(Summary of Komiteti show – RTV Dukagjini)

On Wednesday evening TV Dukagjini ‘Komiteti’ show hosted Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi to discuss about current developments in Kosovo.

Among other topics, President Thaçi also commented developments related to early elections in Kosovo, the influence of Belgrade to Kosovo Serbs and the reaction of Quint countries.

“My invitation as President of Kosovo and that of the Quint countries was intended to ease tensions between political parties, in particular in the north, to avoid incidents; violent acts, threats or blackmails and have fair and free democratic elections,’ said Thaçi.

President Thaçi said that statements from Serbia which demonstrate support to one political entity and discredit other political entities or other political leaders did trigger such acts.

“Citizens in north are Kosovo citizens; they run for Kosovo institutions in compliance with Kosovo Constitution and laws. European observers, different local non-governmental organizations, representatives of Embassies and the OSCE will be there; therefore there will be vigorous monitoring and I believe on the correctness and the credibility of these elections,” Thaçi underlined.

Responding to the question if he has any information  if allegedly members of Serbian Secret Service are interrogating and putting pressure on the candidates of Slobodan Petrovic and Aleksandar Jablanovic, President Thaçi said: “I am in constant contact with the OSCE, Central Election Commission, Kosovo Police and all other relevant mechanisms, who supervise, organize and work for these elections to be fair, democratic, transparent and to have strong local and international credibility,” Thaçi said, adding that such cases were reported, but he said that it up to the relevant mechanisms to identify who did it.  He stressed that conditions will be created for Serbs in north to participate in these elections.