Serbia still has no instruction to vote in Kosovo

He planned to vote even on 21 June in elections to be held in Serbia.

Less than two weeks before parliamentary elections in Serbia, the Republic Election Commission has yet to publish the directive on how the vote for MPs on Kosovo territory will take place.

Still no accurate information has been provided on the part of foreign missions -- neither by the Government of Kosovo, nor by representatives of local authorities in Serb areas -- so there is practically no official confirmation that the vote in Kosovo will happen at all.

The only official decision announced so far is from 8,386 polling stations where the vote will take place, 90 of them are in Kosovo, just as in the past years.

Even after research by Radio Free Europe, so far we have not received much information from the Republic's Chosen Commission in Serbia on how the vote will take place, and who will control and provide electoral materials and locations, as well as where votes will be counted after the closure.

But Miodrag Milosavlevki of Northern Mitrovica is sure that the elections will be held, as they have been held in recent years, based on the 2012 Parliamentary and Presidential Elections of Serbia, where the Organisation for Security and Co-operation mission in Europe (OSBE) has been brokered in Kosovo.

Even Zoran Yevtovic, a North Mitrovica citizen, says he hopes the vote will be held, otherwise if it were not then held according to him, it would be disrespectful of democracy. In the meantime, although the elections have not yet been confirmed, setting up party posters that will participate in the elections has only begun in northern Kosovo.

O SEU: Waiting for Final Decision of Serbia, Kosovo Governments

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which opened on 8 June officially for the assessment of elections in Serbia, told Free Europe Radio that they “do not monitor in Kosovo, but do administrative preparations by Serbian authorities“and that the ODIHR is not involved in holding elections in Kosovo, so they have no comment on the process.

Senad Shabovic, the OSCE spokesman in Kosovo, said there are “communication with the government of Serbia and Kosovo, and that they are awaiting the final decision“.

Head of O Mission The SEU in Pristina, Ambassador Jan Braathu, met with newly elected Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti on Tuesday (June 9th).

The prime minister's office has announced that the overall political situation in Kosovo and “deepening co-operation in the future“were the subject of discussion at the meeting. However, it was not mentioned whether the Serbian parliamentary elections in Kosovo were discussed.

The office of Kosovo's prime minister did not answer Radio Free Europe's question of whether voting should be held in Kosovo.

The Serb community's largest party in Kosovo, the Serb List, did not answer our questions about the election body.

We remember that former Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in late May (May 28th) said Kosovo had not received an official request from Belgrade to hold Serbian elections in Kosovo. His position, however, is that Serbian elections in Kosovo “were never held in accordance with the constitution and Kosovo laws“.

“We will implement and protect the Constitution and the laws of Kosovo”, Kurti said at the time.

The current way of holding elections conflicts with Serbia's Constitutional Court's decision since June 2016, under which the previous way of voting in Kosovo - which O The SEU transports them to the nearby towns of Vranje and Raska in Serbia, after counting -- is not in line with the Constitution.

Despite that, elections for Serbia's president in April 2017 were held the same way. After the closure of polling stations, votes from Kosovo were sent to cities, which are tens of miles away. This model, which was harmonised with the OSCE, but that Serbia's Constitutional Court deemed it anti-unconstitutional, was criticised by the Serbian opposition because, according to them, it led to Kosovo's “citizenship known.

If the same principle of voting and voting counting on 21 June is to be applied, it should be written in the directive expected to be approved by the Republic Election Commission, as it revealed to Radio Free Europe, the Office for Kosovo in Serbia's Government, which is authorised to hold Serbia's elections in Kosovo.

Serbian citizens living in other countries can vote in embassies.