FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
According to Pristina, Serbia must first reach a separate agreement. Kosovo Serbs who have dual citizenship will still be able to vote, but only through the Liaison Office and through the mail.
Serbian authorities a few days ago asked the OSCE mission in Kosovo, but not Pristina, to be involved in the collection of votes of Kosovo Serbs who have dual citizenship for the parliamentary elections in Serbia that are held on December 17. This request to the OSCE will not be taken into account by the official authorities of Pristina, due to the fact that the government of Kosovo has requested that in order to allow the holding of Serbian elections in Kosovo, there must be a special agreement between Pristina and Belgrade . The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has said that "for the voting of citizens of the Serbian community in Kosovo, with dual citizenship, in the Serbian elections outside the Liaison Office of Serbia in Kosovo, a special agreement must be reached between Kosovo and Serbia".
Serbia to make the request for an agreement
According to Kurt, "the request for such an agreement must come from Serbia, as an interested party..." and any request must be based on the sovereignty and independence of Kosovo, as equal states, in accordance with Article 2 of the Basic Agreement reached this year between Kosovo and Serbia. With these conditions, we encourage Serbia to negotiate such a special agreement with Kosovo and in this way implement another obligation of the Basic Agreement: the contribution to good relations between neighbors, based on equal rights and mutual respect for the rights of voters abroad", said Kurti.
Petkovic with harsh criticism towards Albin Kurti
It seems that the Serbian authorities have come to terms with the fact that they will not be able to organize Serbian elections in Kosovo as before. The head of the office for Kosovo in the Serbian government, Petar Petkovic, in the middle of last week gathered in Raška, Serbia, the political representatives of Kosovo Serbs to discuss the ways of their involvement in the elections. He addressed harsh criticism towards Prime Minister Albin Kurti. "It is not possible to hold the Serbian parliamentary elections in Kosovo. The regime of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Pristina, headed by Albin Kurti, conditions the holding of these elections with the recognition by Belgrade of the unilaterally declared independence," he said. Petkovic.
In the past, Serbian elections were also held in Kosovo, where the OSCE mission was involved in the collection of votes, which were then sent to Serbia for counting. This practice was allowed by the Kosovo authorities until last year. The OSCE mission has announced that, however, it remains ready to support the collection of votes, as it has done in previous cases.
How can Serbs with dual citizenship vote?
The last parliamentary elections that Serbia has organized for the Serbian community in Kosovo were those of June 21, 2020. These elections had been held since 2017, where voting centers were opened in Kosovo for Serbs who were assisted by the OSCE. But this time, Kosovo Serbs who have dual citizenship can vote for the elections in Serbia, but only through the Serbian Liaison Office in Kosovo, or through the mail.
On November 1, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, announced the holding of new parliamentary elections on December 17, the third election in a row in Serbia in only three and a half years. The holding of parliamentary elections in Serbia takes place at a time when the entire international community is making efforts to normalize Kosovo-Serbia relations, through dialogue facilitated by the European Union. The leaders of the main European countries, the president of France, the chancellor of Germany and the prime minister of Italy, with a joint statement, asked Kosovo to form the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority, and Serbia to "de facto" recognize Kosovo's independence. /DW
Lini një Përgjigje