Leader of the Civic Initiative, Freedom, Democracy, Justice (GI SDP), Oliver Ivanovic in an interview to Kontakt plus radio spoke about forthcoming local elections in Kosovo, pre-election campaign, but also about internal dialogue on Kosovo and Metohija, called by the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Speaking about his programme, Ivanovic said that many issues from 2013 remain unresolved in 2017 as well, mentioning parking, water supply, landfill, enlargement of a cemetery, cultural and sport centres. These will again be the topics in the Ivanovic’s programme.

Ivanovic also underlined, that local elections mean local topics. He reminded that once Mitrovica used to be a cultural, trade and intellectual centre of Kosovo, adding that today many things changed for worse. He also spoke about the safety of the citizens, calling upon responsible bodies to more effectively perform their work, so Mitrovica can become a city where children are raised and have a future.

Ivanovic also said it is important that the elections are held in a regular manner, there should not be frauds or filling ballot boxes with ballots afterwards, so to avoid everything that happened in the past. Citizens should not be able to vote twice with the same ID card, and procedures should be respected, Kontakt plus radio reported.

Speaking about the support of the official Belgrade to Srpska Lista only, Ivanovic said it is a violation of the laws and the Constitution. It is not possible that someone exercising a state function favours his own party. It can be done at the level of that political party, but then the person should resign from the state function, go to that political party and support anyone he/she wishes so.

Ivanovic added he has an impression they are not worried for violating the Constitution, but certainly they would pay the price for it, sooner or later as people remember.

Speaking about internal dialogue on Kosovo, Ivanovic said that he has supported Vucic when he came out with that idea. Ivanovic had two conditions only, it was important not to limit the dialogue with a timeframe as there is no dialogue if you tell in 2 or 3 months we would come up with a solution. Also, the dialogue should not include a ready-made solution.

At the end of the interview Ivanovic called upon citizens to be brave in 22 October local elections or to live for 4 more years in fear. Ivanovic expressed hope citizens would decide to take a brave act, vote for the CI SDP as it is the way to make Mitrovica better city, Kontakt plus radio reported.