REL: Unclear if Serbian List Wins Ten Places in Kosovo Assembly · Global Voices

For the first time since its founding in 2013, the Serbian List could be left without the ten seats reserved for the Serb community in the Kosovo Assembly, as, according to the preliminary results of the Central Election Commission, a parliamentary country could meet Nenad Rasiq, leader of the Party for Freedom, Justice and Survival.

Rassic, in the past two years, was Minister for Communities and Return in the Government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who appointed him after the Serb List came out of Kosovo institutions.

With 93 per cent of the votes counted by the February 9th elections, the Serbian List ʹ the largest Serbian party in Kosovo, which enjoys absolute backing from official Belgrade, secure about 30,485 votes, or 3.88 per cent of total, while the Party for Freedom, Justice and Survival received about 3,428 votes, or 0.44 per cent.

According to current results, the Serbian List lost the support of nearly 150,000 people, compared to the 2021 parliamentary elections.

Rassic, on the other hand, increased support for about 2,000 votes.

The situation, however, could change after counting on bail, because in that group are mostly the votes of displaced persons who went to vote in Kosovo under the organisation of the Republic of Serbia's Commissioner for Refugees and the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia.

Other political subjects from the Serb community, which participated in the February 9th elections, will not enter the Kosovo Assembly.

Aleksandar Arsenijevic's Serbian Democracy received about 1,700 votes, the Serbian People's Movement and Branimir Stojanovic received about 1.405 votes, the Civic Initiative of People's Justice received about 597 votes, and the Kosovo Serb Party received 348 votes.

Serbian list specifically thanks “to a person”

Serbian List Chairman Zlatan Ellek declared his party's <x0fit absolute and convincing” on February 9th, stressing that it has won 10 of the 10 parliamentary seats reserved for the Serb community.

The Serbian list, according to him, received over 400,000 votes.

He thanked Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, for his support, as well as the displaced ones who came from Serbia to vote, but, in the end, credited the great “of the victory to” in particular to one man.

This is also victory for all those Serbs, our brothers and sisters who are not in Kosovo and Metohija today, who contributed to this grand victory, especially one of them”, Ellek said.

This public statement was understood as an audience in Milan Radocicin, who is believed to be free in Serbia since the 2023 attack on Banjska.

He killed a Kosovo police officer, and later resigned from the post of deputy head of the Serbian List.

Kosovo considers this attack a terrorist and believes the state of Serbia is behind it, which official Belgrade denies.

Rasp: Belgrade was always “agresive” against Serbs in Kosovo

The leader of the Party for Freedom, Justice and Survival, Nenad Rassic, said on February 9th that, according to his data, this political option has received over 3,500 votes and that after counting all votes, it expects to secure one to two parliamentary mandates in the Kosovo Assembly.

In each case, we passed that 10% threshold defined by the new law, and I think the CEC doesn't have the way to ignore this. We will wait until tomorrow, then it will be clear that our party will have not only one seats, but perhaps more seats in the Assembly”, Rassic said at a news conference.

He said that “from different sides comes various dezinforms” and that it is not possible for the Serbian List to have won over 400,000 votes.

A few hours after the suspension of seats in Kosovo, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, said the Serbian List, not counting the votes of displaced persons so conditionally votes has won about 33,000 votes.

“It is clearly clear that the Serbian List wins all ten mandates, that it will be defence against further attacks by [Kosovo Prime Minister Albin] Kurti” wrote Vuciq in his Instagram account.

In his speech following the closure of the deployments, Rassic said Belgrade “has always been aggressive towards Kosovo Serbs and has not allowed them to develop their political capacities”.

“Using [Serbs in Kosovo], he tried to suppress any authentic thought, any initiative that could benefit all”, Rassic said.

Messages of Other Serbian Political Representatives in Kosovo

Serbian Democracy leader Aleksandar Arsenijevic said he will comment on the election results when there is more information.

Branimir Stojanovic from the Serbian People's Movement said that “will not surrender, even though the results are depressing”.

The people he has chosen will have the power that he has chosen”, he said, adding that the Serbian List governance system “ma seems to fit the people”.

We understand that you don't want to believe in reality, but no vote will grant immunity to those who stole from you”, the Civic Initiative of People's Justice said.

The Kosovo Serb Party said Serbs in Kosovo accepted the Serbian List's actions as rights and gave her confidence.

This party congratulated it on the clear <x0fitor, free and fair elections”.

We wish Serbs that the Serbian List would rule for another 100 years”, the party said.

Since its establishment in 2013, the Serbian List has won over 90 per cent of the Serb community's votes in all the elections in which it has participated, but the EU Monitoring Mission has pointed to “monopol and pressures” by its officials.

In the past two years, this party has attended a <x0political boycotting”, in line with its decision to withdraw from Kosovo institutions in the north.

It is not yet clear whether, in the coming period, it will participate actively in Kosovo institutions, or continue with boycotting. / REL