Author: birnEU

Life in Kosovo invited in the debate: Behar Selimi, MP of PDK; Vjosa Osmani, MP of LDK; Dardan Sejdiu, Vetëvendoje Movement; Driton Selmanaj, Kosovo Democratic Institute; and Besa Shahini, European Initiative for Stability.

Among the things discussed was the privatization of Kosovo Post and Telecom. In the plenary session that was held for this issue, the government could not collect the votes in favor of privatization. The biggest opposition party voted against PTK privatization. Behar Selimi, the MP of PDK, stated that “PTK privatization is one of the most discussed issues in the assembly. There were many reasons that prevented the closing of this issue, such as technical problems, no uniformity between individuals in one group/party, and because privatization is not seen as indispensable yet”.

Moreover, during the plenary session LDK left the assembly room. Vjosa Osmani, MP of LDK, states that “PTK privatization is one of the most sensitive issues and every time the parliament discuses about this issue LDK always opposed it.”LDK asked to return this process in the initial state because every tender that is released should have in prior the assembly decision and the privatization of PTK did not have the assembly decision.

Moreover, Driton Selmanaj, from KDI, says that “in 2011 the government contraband this issue by adding an annex of privatization in the budget law.”

In addition, Dardan Sejdiu, from Vetevendosje, said that “Mr. Fadil Ismaili, minister of Economic Development, did not answer some of the questions asked in relation to this issue. We need to know where does the money comes, the financial reports, and the auditor’s report because PTK is one of the biggest national assets that controls 1.2 million subscribers”.

Furthermore, it is predicted that in spring of 2014 early elections might take place in Kosovo and in Serbia as well. Mrs. Besa Shahini said that “usually we do not decide to do things that are good for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia which is very important for Brussels, Serbia and also for Kosovo.” Whereas, Vjosa Osmani said that she agrees that the Kosovo – Serbia dialogue might have an impact on the elections of 2014 but she also said that there is a chance that the leading party will chose the time that they want without asking the other parties.

In this debate it was also mentioned that the upcoming elections (national and local) will be very important because Kosovo will show if the elections are followed by fraud and irregularities or if Kosovo improved and the major irregularities during elections will be reduced.

Finally, the debaters concluded the debate by talking about the election abuse. They said that it is important to have many local and international observers that do not allow the ballot to be abused. If these elections are passed without irregularities we will show that Kosovo is progressing and also shows that we have representative institutions.

 

To discus about this issue ‘Life in Kosovo’ had invited Valdete Daka, head of Central Election Commission, and Baki Kelani, Kosovo Police spokesperson.

The head of Central Elections Commission, Valdete Daka, told that Thursday evening the results for four North Kosovo municipalities will be ready; whereas, Baki Kelani, talked about the operation plan of Kosovo Police in the north.

Valdete Daka promised that they will publish the results on Friday (the debate was held on Thursday). She said that the voting sheets for the north Kosovo municipalities were being counted in the CEC offices because of the security reasons. “The commissioners and the observers were present in the counting process”, said Daka.

Daka also mentioned the incidents and security level in North Kosovo. “Considering the situation in North Kosovo the security level should have been higher and more organized having in mind that there were many threats done toward the citizens of that part of Kosovo”, added Daka. Despite the incidents, Daka classified the process as successful.

During the Elections day a group of masked people entered in three polling centers: Sveti Sava School, Technical High School, and the Medical High School. As a result of this problem these three polling centers were declared invalid.

The spokesperson of Kosovo Police, Baki Kelani, said that the operation plan of Kosovo Police for the local level and was sent to the all regional departments including the regional department of the municipality of North Mitrovica.

Kelani claimed that besides Kosovo Police responsible were also the international institutions such as EULEX and KFOR. Kelani talked mainly about the attack in the school Sveti Sava.

“A group of approximately 30 people entered in the polling center Sveti Sava and they attacked the commissioners and destroyed the election material”, said Kelani.

The reaction of the Kosovo Police officials was adequate. Kosovo Police managed to save the lives of people who were inside the polling center. According to Kelani, Kosovo Police opened eight files and arrested 3 persons in the north part of Mitrovica.

 

To discuss this topic Life in Kosovo invited: Betim Gjoshi, representative of PDK in Central Election Commission; Florian Dushi, representative of LDK in CEC; Binak Vishaj, representative of AAK in CEC; Adnan Rrustemi, representative of Vetëvendosje in CEC; and Valmir Ismaili, Democracy in Action.

Valmir Ismaili, of Democracy in Action, during the debate said that it is important that the results of the elections of November 3rd to reflect the citizens will. Betim Gjoshi said that the elections day should be a day to celebrate, whereas Florian Dushi asked to not repeat the election abuse that happened in 2010, where the national elections were considered to have warped citizens will.

The Vetëvendosje representative, Adnan Rrustemi, said that many Serbian citizens have applied to participate in the elections of November 3rd and the only document that they posses is a refugee card.

According to Rrustemi, when applying to vote in Kosovo, they should posses a document such as ID card, driving license, health card, or electricity bills to make sure that they lived in Kosovo before 1998. The ones that want to vote with the refugee card may not be from Kosovo; they might be from Bosnia and Croatia and we wouldn’t know.

Around 40 thousand applications coming from Serbia were received by CEC through OSCE. Over 6000 applications were approved and the others were refused.

Moreover, during the debate it was also said that even though the election campaign has started, the CEC still has not finished organization of elections. According to the operational plan of CEC the polling station should have been formed by now, but they are not formed yet.

Another problem that CEC is facing is the electoral list. 20 thousand dead persons and 11 thousand who resigned the Kosovo citizenship were removed from the list, but there are still many more that can be found in the election registers. Betim Gjoshi blames the citizens for not informing the municipality about the death of their family members.

Binak Vishaj said that in the near future CEC will remove 1000 other persons that resigned the Kosovo citizenship.

Furthermore, only 2100 persons have applied from Diaspora to participate in the local election of November 3rd and 1700 applications were approved. In the electoral list are put all the persons that posses Kosovo documents, no matter where they live.

The elections of November 3rd will be observed by many domestic and international organizations. Democracy in Action will have 1600 observers around Kosovo, whereas EU will have 100 observers.

Leon Malazogu, executive director of D4D Institution said that the visits and the messages of Serbian officials are totally against the containing of the agreement. Also, the analyst Besa Shahini from the European Initiative for Stability agreed with Leon Malazogu’ statement.

“It the Prime Minister of Serbia comes and says that the Serbians of Kosovo should vote a particular list then he is breaching the Brussels’ agreement”, said Shahini.

The analyst Dugagjin Gorani said that the uncoordinated declarations were a mismanagement of the situation; however, these declarations are not important and do not impact the process.

Moreover, Branislav Krstiq, analyst and journalist form North Mitrovica, said that the purpose of this visits is for citizens to vote based on their directives. They want to lower the risk of Albanians winning in the Serbian municipalities.

Ten days before the end of pre-elections campaign the elections turnout of Serbians of Kosovo was classified as unpredictable by the panelists of Life in Kosovo despite the published polls.

A report published United Nations Development Program (UNDP) showed Quick Facts for the North Municipalities in Relation to Local Elections.
According to the report, 16 percent Serbians living in North Kosovo declared that they will vote; 17 percent said maybe; whereas, 23 percent said that they haven’t decided yet.

Besa Shahini said that the official’s visits do not raise the number of Serbian participants in the Local Elections of 2013. Whereas, Leon Malazogu said that Serbian officials are not encourage Serbians of Kosovo to cooperate with Prishtina.

Branislav Krstiq also stated that the Serbian Province in Kosovo is only a dream of the radical Serbians and it is a misunderstanding for the majority of Albanians.

Despite the inability to predate the participation of Serbians in the election, Gorani said that the participation in these elections is very important.