Serbia introduces April elections in dialogue agenda: Kosovo government has no answer

The Kosovo government has not answered Radio Europe's free question on the issue.

Office for Kosovo Director in Serbia Government Petar Petkoviq told the Serbian public broadcaster, RTS, that “will be discussed in Brussels for the judiciary, but also for the April 3rd elections, because they should be held in Kosovo”.

Petkov and Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi will meet in Brussels on Tuesday, within the dialogue on normalising relations, mediated by the European Union.

Serbia holds early parliamentary and presidential elections on April 3rd. Kosovo institutions, unlike previous practice, have warned they will not allow their organisation in Kosovo.

Serbia seeks its elections held in Kosovo

In January, Kosovo has not allowed the development of a Serbian referendum on judicial issues, on its territory, and government officials have said it will do likewise with the April elections.

At that time, the Government of Kosovo has said that the opening of seats in Kosovo for Serbia's elections is contrary to the Constitution and the laws of Kosovo, while as a possibility for Serbs has offered the post office vote or through the Liaison Office with Serbia.

So far, the government does not seem to have released, despite the international community's calls.

During its stay in Kosovo, earlier this month, US envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, and the European Union's envoy for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Lajcak have called for the exercise of voting rights in Kosovo to be possible.

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

Late last week, US State Department adviser Derek Chollet has said he has talked with Kosovo Prime Minister Albun Kurti about Serbia's elections.

In a Twitter post, Chollet has said they have discussed practices when the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSBE) “has complied with other states' demands for voting with physical presence”.

Kurt didn't comment on that statement.

Serbia's Kosovo elections, “alone via O SBE”

Former head of the Central Election Commission in Kosovo (KQZ), Valdete Daka, says Kosovo Serbs, with Serbian citizenship, could vote in Serbia's elections just as the Kosovo diaspora vote in Kosovo's elections -- at embassies or via mail.

In Kosovo, she adds, Serbia's elections can only be organised with management and organisation of O The SEU and without the involvement of Kosovo institutions, much less the CEC.

The “in us has been a unique case, because I don't know that in any state of the world one can go from one state to another state of”, says Dhaka for Radio Free Europe.

Even Kosovo Democratic Institute Director Ismet Kryeziu says that with OSCE mediation and organisation, Serbian citizens could vote in Serbia's Kosovo elections.

But, according to him, the Serbian state could also establish polling stations at border points with Kosovo, so that the approach of Kosovo Serbs in the elections would be easier and faster.

I think that an opportunity would have to be discussed at the border points ʹ at land crossings should be organised by the Republic of Serbia”, Kryeziu says.

The OSCE mission has not responded to Radio Free Europe's questions about what other practices are besides the “collection of votes” used in the member states of this organisation.

What has been the practice before?

Just a few months after Kosovo has declared independence on February 17th 2008, Serbia has organised parliamentary elections in majority Serb areas in Kosovo.

In these elections, which have been held on May 11th, 2008, the right to vote in the polls in Kosovo has exploited about 900,000 citizens of Serbia, the Republika Election Commission data in Serbia has shown.

Serbia's parliamentary elections on Kosovo territory have also been held in 2012, 2014, 2016. The last Serbian parliamentary elections in Kosovo are held on 21 June 2020.

In the latter, the ballot has gathered the Kosovo mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSBE).

This voting collection practice was established in 2017 and has so far had the permission of Kosovo authorities.

After the closure of polling stations, votes from Kosovo have been counted in the District and Vranje two Serbian border towns.

The “vote-gathering method” in Kosovo has also held Serbia's presidential election in 2017. Serbia has organised its presidential elections in Kosovo even in 2012.

The local Serbian elections in Kosovo are not organised after Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence, as the decentralisation process has begun in the same year, based on Martti Ahtisaari's plan. This plan is the document on which Kosovo has declared independence.