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Serbia Supports Kosovo Poll Boycott

By Aleksandar Vasovic and Krenar Gashi

16 11 2007  

Belgrade, Pristina _ A Serbian minister said on Friday that the expected boycott by the Serb minority of Saturday’s elections in Kosovo was related to insufficient security in the UN-administered territory.

Predrag Bubalo, Serbia’s Trade Minister, said that “security provisions were a prerequisite for Serbs to participate in the Kosovo vote”, which includes both parliamentary and municipal elections.

“How can one expect Serbs to vote when they need a military escort,” Bubalo told reporters in Belgrade.

Although there are few security concerns for Serbs in Kosovo's north, where they are in control, according to local media most local Serbs will boycott the elections after parliament in Belgrade urged them earlier this month to abstain.

A big majority of the 30 Serb political parties that are registered with Kosovo’s Central Election Commission, CEC, have decided to withdraw from the contest.

The UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, claims that Kosovo Serbs are being pressured and even threatened not to take part in the voting.

UNMIK’s head,  Joachim Ruecker, said on Thursday in Vienna that "actions by certain Kosovo Serb leaders and statements by officials in Belgrade, amounting to such pressure, have been documented and are strongly deplored".

Dusan Janjic of the Belgrade Forum for Ethnic Relations think-tank has described the boycott as a bad move, and argued that the Serbian government might suffer a political defeat if more than 15 per cent of Kosovo Serbs decide to vote.

“This speaks a lot about decision makers in Belgrade and their lack of knowledge about Kosovo Serbs most of whom wouldn't be voting anyway,” Janjic told Balkan Insight.

He also said that the policies of the Serbian government over the election boycott are “effectively dividing the Kosovo Serbs."

Janjic said that “this will spark more political infighting, and this is an attempt by local political leaders with backing from Belgrade to take over the entire political scene,” among Kosovo’s Serb minority.

Kosovo's constitution stipulates that 10 seats in the 120-strong parliament are reserved for Serbs and an additional 10 for other minority groups.

More than 200,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians have fled Kosovo since the UN administration was installed in 1999, fearing attacks from ethnic Albanian extremists.

 
The remainder lives either in Kosovo's Serb-dominated north that borders Serbia or scattered in more vulnerable enclaves throughout the province.

CEC officials expect the north to pose a particularly difficult problem on polling day.

The Serb authorities in the northern part of Mitrovica town and in the municipalities of Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok, have warned that they will not open their schools on Saturday for the polling stations to be set up.

 
Also it is reported that local staff, who are supposed to be in charge of these polling stations, might not be able to their job because of threats.

CEC officials say they will do their best to make it possible for those who want to vote to be able to cast their ballots.

Arianit Osmani, CEC spokesperson, told Balkan Insight that “in case CEC lacks staff, there will be a reserve list of international monitors who can substitute them”.

“We have also considered having mobile polling stations as an ad hoc solution.

These polling stations that would be set up in the streets so people can vote, even if the school premises are closed to us”, said Osmani.