Effective representation of non-communities at Risk

So have Duda Bale of the Social Democrat Union and Emily Rexhepi of the New Democratic Party. For more, they say, if complaints at PZAP are not to be answered, according to them, merited, complaints will later be made at the Supreme Court, but also at the Constitutional Court.

The former head of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, Enver Hasani, says the two parties from the Bosniak community, the Social Democrat Union and the New Democratic Party, have strong constitutional grounds to complain at the Constitutional Court, but, according to him initially, should waste regular legal means at PZAP and the Supreme Court.

On the basis of preliminary results published by the Central Election Commission, it can be seen that the majority of 6,379 votes that the United Community has received “Adrijana Hodzic” have been secured in Serb-dominated municipalities. According to CEC preliminary data, more than 5,300 votes for the subject are counted in Serb-run populated municipalities. This political subject is believed to have won a seat in the Kosovo Assembly.

But according to preliminary results published by the CEC, the Vacat Coalition has received 5,672 votes, out of which at least over 700 votes have been counted as coming from Serb-run populated municipalities. It is also believed that even this political subject has secured a seat in the Kosovo Assembly.

The New Democratic Party has received 2,763 votes, meanwhile, the Social Democrat Union has received 2,434 votes. The fifth Bosnian political subject Initiative “Nada” has received 1,295 votes.

DSU and NDS: Anke, until Constitutional

FormerDeputate Duda Bale of the Social Democrat Union says she will address all competent institutions to review her complaint, then, initially The PEZP and then, if necessary, the Supreme Court and finally the Constitutional Court.

I would be called to the Constitution of Kosovo. I want the Constitution to protect me, and I want the moment of the Constitution to be accurately defined, in which it is said that the representative of the people must be elected with the votes of the people he stands for. You will now have an MP, Adrijana Hodzhiqi, for whom in 97 percent of cases the Serbs have voted. In this case, how it can represent the interests of Bosniaks, it is a major question”, Bale points out.

The Social Democrat Union, based on preliminary results published by the CEC, is believed to be unable to secure seats in the Kosovo Assembly.

Such a guaranteed seat for the Bosniak community, according to preliminary results from the CEC, is believed to have assured the New Democratic Party. Its director, Emily Rexhepi, tells Radio Free Europe, however, that its subject will also file complaints, if necessary even to the Constitutional Court. The complaint, according to her, concerns the votes the United Community and the Vakat coalition have received from the Serb majority municipalities, where, according to her, no Bosniak lives.

We cannot keep silent about this because in the future there can be a kind of absorption from all countries in the region or within our state. We will complain to the Central Election Commission, first of all in PZAP, as a political subject, to see where they got the votes, according to whose signatures, from which. Then we will complain on the basis of the census, because we don't have any Bosniaks in Zubin Potok, in Novoberda and in all of these Serb municipalities in Kosovo, so, of those results?”, Rexhepi says.

UZ and Vaca: Serbian vote, fact

The allegations that have addressed representatives of the Social Democrat Union and the New Democratic Party have reacted to representatives of the United Community (UZ) and the Vacat Coalition.

Adrijana Hodzic, founder and host of the United Community List, tells Radio Free Europe that the “a that they lose have the right to grieve” and that it has begun a democratic process and that “scala is the vote that has taken place by the citizen of Kosovo” that has believed in its programme.

I am convinced that I also had votes from the Serb community, but also from the Albanian community, from the Turkish community and the Bosnian community. But remember, municipalities where the Serb community is majority, these municipalities are not one-ethnic. Other communities live there. So I, as a candidate, can only boast that I am the only one who has received votes from all communities and will try to reason with this”, Hodzic stressed.

Rasim Demiri, chairman of the Vacat Coalition, who itself has not been able to participate in the elections due to a penalty followed by a traffic fine, tells Radio Free Europe, that all Bosnian political subjects, without exception, have received votes not only in municipalities where the Bosniak community lives, but also other communities.

The fact that a small number is being announced, about 550 votes in some environments where the majority population is Serb, I really have no information about that. It's like in previous elections, when in Kacanik, we had 350 votes, like the Vacat coalition. So we have no connection with those votes and the Vacat coalition absolutely needs such votes”, Demiri says.

Hasani: Subjects Grieving Have Constitutional Bases

Enver Hasani, former head of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, in a conversation with Radio Free Europe, estimates that in complaints by the Social Democrat Union and the New Democratic Party, if represented in competent organs, including both at the Constitutional Court, they are completely based. The constitutional rate, he says, guarantees effective representation of each community in the country.

In this case, the vote is clear that it is not the vote of those who are declared Bosniaks, Roma and other non-Serb and non-Albanian communities respectively, and it is totally unconstitutional and that is against the consequential democracy that exists in Kosovo. Consistent democracy means that each community has its own representation. In this case, effectively, parties that are declared as Bosniaks, Roma and others, which until yesterday have represented communities, are now effectively represented by the Serb community”, Hasani points out.

Confrontation of concepts among Bosnian subjects

Immediately after declaring the elections in early January 2021, the Social Democrat Union and the New Democratic Party, political subjects representing Bosniaks, have accused the Serbian List of planning that “through its voting body to exert influence and bring some of the non-communal communities to Kosovo”.

In this context, they have charged co-operation with the Serbian List, the United Community of Adrijana Hodzic and Gazmend Salijevic Roma Initiative from Gracanica, also this Serb-run municipality.

Hodzic had sharply rejected these accusations, saying there is no agreement between her initiative and the Serbian List.

The Serbian list is established and supported by official Belgrade. This political subject has received the overwhelming majority of votes and is believed to have secured the 10 seats guaranteed for the Serb community in the Kosovo Assembly.

The leader of the Social Democrat Union, Duda Bale, expresses the opinion that if the votes of another community -- whether it be majority or not -- are given a political subject of the other community and thus affects the election outcome of the particular political subject, then, as she says, the constitutional norm of effective representation of the community, whatever it is.

Do you understand what can happen? Let's say I can compete tomorrow instead of Roma and with a much smaller number of votes to become Roma representative, while I have no ties with the Roma in the national sense. In this way you completely lose the multiethnic understanding of parliament”, Bale points out.

Emily Rexhepi of the New Democratic Party similarly expresses the opinion.

It's open. Pandora's Box. In the upcoming elections, for example, the Vetevendosje Movement gets the 10 guaranteed seats of Serbs, granting them 50,000 votes. So an independent system has collapsed and the direct influence of another state on our stage is very harmful”, Rexhepi points out.

On the other hand, Adjana Hodzic of the United Community has a different perspective. According to her, each vote that has taken its political subject is for Kosovo citizens, regardless of ethnic affiliation, but have believed in the programme of this subject.

We hope that the right approach is to have a situation where even the minority community is respected. We should have a living together. So, a coexistence, which is logical and natural. This was our programme that all communities have supported”, Hodzic points out.

Are the parameters of representation of non-US communities broken?

The former head of the Constitutional Court, Enver Hasani, estimates that if, hypothetically, the Constitutional Court does not protect the constitutional guarantee of representation of non-Albanian and non-Serb communities, which should be effective and not illusion, then, in the future, the problems for non-Albanian communities are inevitable.

According to him, the Serb community, but other communities that have guaranteed seats in the Kosovo Assembly may lose all those countries, which will go in favour of persons who claim to belong to those non-US communities, even if they effectively belong to certain non-communica communities, but who have a certain current political rule.

If taken with that logic, it means abuse with the constitutional norm guaranteeing effective representation of communities. Then even the Albanian community, as a majority community, can play the same game in the future, and the representation parameters will be destroyed. Currently, the parameters of representation of non-US communities have been undermined. I assure you that in the next election we will have Albanians, in the middle of Sculerright, when they will vote those Serbs who eventually may be the ones who have the lowest representation of the Serb community. So, they're loyal to daily condoms, for very different reasons. Meanwhile, the Constitution's idea is for effective representation”, Hasani says.

The Social Democrat Union and the New Democratic Party have stressed that their complaints in competent bodies will be filed shortly after the official election results from the CEC emerge.