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Family of the murdered Oliver Ivanovic against use of his name in elections

Oliver Ivanovic's nephew said on Thursday the family told the Election Commission in Pristina they were against the usage of the late leader’s name on any election ticket, regional broadcaster N1 reported.

Aleksandar Ivanovic tweeted that his family obligation was “to protect the principles and values Oliver stood for and fought for and which for he paid an ultimate price.”

Ivanovic’s move came hours after his uncle’s closest political ally Ksenija Bozovic said she and Oliver Ivanovic’s Civic Initiative SDP would take part in the early elections in Kosovo due on October 6, together with the Serbian List, whose deputy leader is on an arrest warrant as one of the suspects in Oliver’s murder.

Ksenija Bozovic told N1 on Thursday she met Vucic a few days ago and agreed with him to join the Serbian List’s electoral ticket supported by Belgrade and that she did not know Radoicic personally who, as she said, “was” the Serbian List deputy.

Asked if he “was or still is,” she said, “you have to ask them.”

Her colleagues from the CI SDP said they were surprised with her decision and some of them left the party, while others distanced themselves from the move.

But Vucic said he was pleased with Bozovic’s decision since “we need a unity” in Kosovo.

Other Serb opposition politicians in Kosovo, mostly those from Kosovo’s south, predominantly populated by the Albanians, disagree.

''What you see today with Ms Bozovic is not an agreement, it’s an ultimatum,'' Leader of the Progressive-Democratic Party Nenad Rasic told N1.

Rasic, who formed a coalition with several Kosovo Serb politicians ahead of the elections, said “there was no room for cooperation with the Serbian List,” accusing the party of being “just a Belgrade instrument” in Kosovo’s north where the Serbs created a majority and where the Serbian List holds all relevant offices.

Head of the Independent Liberal Party (SLS) Slobodan Petrovic told N1 that the problem the Serb community in Kosovo was that Serbia had conducted a party's politics and not national, and added that “this is not the first time, but now it’s more obvious and more brutal.”

To Vucic’s call to all the Serbs to unite and support the Serbian List, Petrovic said "no way".