Serbia demands that its elections be held in Kosovo as well

In a conversation with the Russian ambassador in Belgrade, Aleksandr Bocan Harchenko, Petkovic said that the “campaign of pressure and repression against the Serbian people” continues in Kosovo.

According to him, the authorities in Kosovo openly try to “endanger and abolish” all political and civil rights of Serbs.

Petkovic said that for Belgrade, Russia’s support and assistance to the Kosovo issue is of great importance, reports the Balkan Service of Radio Free Europe, citing a statement from the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia.

Belgrade, said Petkovic, is determined to try to find a compromise solution in the dialogue for the normalization of relations with Kosovo, but also to protect the interests of Serbs.

On January 16, Serbia organized a referendum to change the Constitution in the field of justice, and this was the first time that no polling stations were opened in Serb-majority areas in Kosovo.

This was a decision of the Government of Kosovo, on the grounds that the opening of polling stations in Kosovo for the elections in Serbia is contrary to the Constitution and laws of Kosovo.

Serbian citizens have been able to exercise their right to vote by mail or through the Liaison Office with Serbia.

The Government’s decision was also supported by the Assembly of Kosovo on January 15, despite calls from the international community to enable Serbs in Kosovo to vote in a referendum organized by Serbia.

On April 3, Serbia holds presidential elections and early parliamentary elections.

Officials of the Vetëvendosje Movement – the ruling party in Kosovo – have said earlier that the Kosovo Serb vote in the April 3 Serbian elections “should be done in the same way as in the case of Serbia’s referendum on constitutional changes.”
How has the practice been before?

Just a few months after Kosovo declared independence on February 17, 2008, Serbia held parliamentary elections in the Serb-majority areas of Kosovo.

In these elections, which were held on May 11, 2008, the right to vote in polling stations in Kosovo was used by about 90 thousand citizens of Serbia, according to data from the Republican Election Commission in Serbia.

Serbia’s parliamentary elections in the territory of Kosovo were held in 2012, 2014, 2016.

The last Serbian parliamentary elections in Kosovo were held on June 21, 2020.

In the latter, the ballots were collected by the mission in Kosovo of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

This practice of collecting votes was established in 2017 and so far it has had the permission of the Kosovo authorities.

Following the closure of polling stations, votes from Kosovo were counted in Raska and Vranje – two border towns of Serbia.

With the method of “vote collection” in Kosovo were held the presidential elections of Serbia in 2017.

Serbia has organized its presidential elections in Kosovo in 2012.

Serb local elections in Kosovo were not held after Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, as the decentralization process began in the same year, based on Martti Ahtisaari’s plan.

This plan is the document on the basis of which Kosovo declared independence.
Calls of the international community

Last week, the US envoy to the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, and the European Union’s envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, called for the exercise of the right to vote in Kosovo.

The two diplomats paid an official visit to Pristina and Belgrade.

Lajcak said that there are European standards and practices that allow people to vote when they live elsewhere.

“Modalities must be found. “It belongs to both sides, while the EU and the US will help,” he said.

Escobar said that the US position is that everyone in the region should vote in democratic elections, in which they have the right to vote.

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