The Kosovo government impossible without the Serbs (Vesti)
Regardless of whether they will remain the ten guaranteed seats in the Kosovo parliament, after the counting of conditional votes (final official figures Kosovo CEC will announce on July 10th), the Serbian community in Kosovo will certainly have ministerial and deputy minister positions whoever forms the Kosovo government. These positions are guaranteed by the Constitution of Kosovo, namely Article 96, which refers to the ministries and community representation, which is practically copied provision from the Ahtisaari Plan.
The document that is the source of the legal political system, and which, it seems, all forgotten about while in the Kosovo parliament big debate was on-going on the draft law on general elections (which would drastically reduce the number of Serbian voters) gives the Serbs a great bargaining power. Specifically, it is envisaged that the Serbs should agree on a delegation of ministerial functions from the Serbian community, allowing them and to, if they wish, block the constitution of the Kosovo government.
- There will be at least one minister from the Serbian community and a minister of another non-majority community. If there are more than twelve ministers, the government will have third Minister representing non-majority communities in Kosovo. There will be at least two Deputy Ministers from the Serbian community in Kosovo and the two Deputy Ministers from other minority communities. If there are more than twelve ministers there will be a third Deputy Minister representing the Serbian community and one deputy minister of other non-majority communities in Kosovo- according to Article 96 of the Constitution of Kosovo.
The Constitution provides that the election of ministers and deputy ministers is done in consultation with the parties, coalitions or groups representing minority communities. It anticipates and the possibility that for a member of the government are appointed and persons who did not qualify for deputy seats, but only with the official approval of the majority of members of the Serbian community.
Although the local Serbian politicians in Kosovo generally say that turnout was big, analysis of invalid votes done by Vesti shows that a large percentage of people going to the polls actually voiced protest and political dissent with this act.
A large percentage of invalid votes are in both north and south of the river, and it is not about ballots with the crossed coat of arms of Kosovo, or where instead of ticking the party name was rounded, but those ballots that were entirely crossed-out, left empty or scrabbled.
Invalid ballots
The highest percentage of invalid ballots is in the municipality of Zvecan/Zveqan 28.68 per cent (4488 valid votes, 550 invalid), then the municipality of Zubin Potok – 21.4 per cent (2660 valid votes, 570 invalid). A high percentage of invalid votes is in Štrpce/Shterpce 17.46 per cent (6248 valid votes, invalid 1091), as well as the municipality of Klokot/Kllokot - 16.75 per cent (1504 valid votes, 252 invalid). The smallest number of invalid votes is in Parteš - 6.78 per cent and the northern part of Mitrovica - 5.8 per cent, or 252 invalid votes, as opposed to 4324 valid.