Serbian drama before the elections in Kosovo (Vesti)
Dragan Jablanović Mayor of Leposavic/Leposaviq says, unless Pristina gives in the Serbs will surely boycott the elections.
- All was deliberately calculated in order to stay at 10 guaranteed seats and to have no influence on the adoption of key legislations for minorities. It is the classical discrimination - says Jablanovic, the mayor of Leposavic/Leposaviq and a member of the management team for the implementation of the Brussels Treaty and one of the main negotiators with the authorities in Pristina.
- We have frozen a campaign and under the present conditions Serbs have no intention to go to the polls for the Kosovo parliament. Albanians interpret the law as it suits them, they tricked the international representatives in Pristina, they tried to trick us and their goal is that the Serbs do not win more than 10 to 11 seats and to serve only as decor in the Assembly without any interference even in laws concerning minorities - Jablanović is determined.
He explains that if the threshold remains at five per cent, or 40 000 votes, the Serbs with guaranteed seats will have 25 or 26 seats and will be a real force in the Kosovo parliament. And if we would agree to the threshold of 10 per cent, or 70 000 votes, which Pristina is trying to impose, we would have only guaranteed MPs and maybe just one more.
- We have an absurd situation, for example for Ramush Haradinaj is enough to cross the five per cent threshold, and they seek 10 per cent for Serbs. It's all calculated so we win not more than 14 seats. Specifically, under the laws of Kosovo, in order to block the vote of laws that are discriminatory and against minorities, 70 per cent of minority deputies is needed, and that is more than 14 deputies. Since Albanians can easily buy Bosniaks, Ashkali and others, the goal is to prevent the Serbs to have more than 14 deputies and so they cannot block legislation directed against them and other minorities - highlights Jablanović.
He recalls that the Albanians in advance stole 17 000 Serbian votes, because the number of displaced voters is illegally reduced to 12 000, from the 29 000.
If all displaced Serbs could vote, and there are at least 200 000, with the votes of some 120 000 Serbs now living in Kosovo, we would get between 30 and 35 members and would be the strongest, or at least second in the Kosovo parliament. For example, Hashim Thaci received a maximum of 35 deputies.
Jablanović hopes that the American ambassador and other representatives of the international community, who were given the wrong information by the Albanians, and then listened the Serbs arguments, will force Pristina to respect requests of Serbs and to enable them to vote and win as many seats.
Ballots without emblem
Albanians agree to remove inscription "Kosovo Republic" from the voting material, but not the coat of arms of Kosovo.
- We will cut the coat of arms, and all ballots will be invalid. So let the international community asks itself why all the Serbian votes are invalid and then what. This is not blackmail, we just stick to the Brussels Treaty and the Albanians at every turn are trying to cheat – said Jablanović.
Invasion of the observers
- In Leposavic we have 230 Albanian voters. All of them to gather on behalf of their four parties they could not cover all the polling stations. So we agreed that we do not send our people to their places, and they do not send to places where Serbs are living.
However, from Pristina they insist on sending members of the boards to the North and observers from other parts of Kosovo, and they will need protection of a few policemen. At the same time they do not allow the Serbs to be in the election boards in Albanian areas - says Jablanović.