Government of Kosovo: The decision to hold elections in Serbia will be in accordance with the Constitution

2023-11-17 18:32:51, Kosova & Bota CNA

Government of Kosovo: The decision to hold elections in Serbia will be in

The Government of Kosovo has told Radio Free Europe on Friday that it is aware of a request to hold Serbian elections on the territory of Kosovo, and its response will be in accordance with the Constitution of Kosovo.

The spokesperson of the Government, Përparim Kryeziu, said that in the drafting of the response, the Brussels agreements, reached between Kosovo and Serbia, within the dialogue mediated by the European Union, will be analyzed.

Officials of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) told Radio Free Europe a few days ago that on November 3, the mission in Kosovo accepted the request from the Government of Serbia to be involved in the collection of votes of the residents of Kosovo. with dual citizenship, for the elections in Serbia.

The Serbian President, Aleksandar Vu?i?, has announced the general elections for December 17 of this year.

In response, it was said that the OSCE has informed the Government of Kosovo and other relevant mechanisms about this request, and that the support of Kosovo's institutions is essential for the OSCE to be involved in such an election organization.

"The mission has informed the Government of Kosovo about this request and in principle is ready to collect the votes under the same conditions, based on past practices. These conditions include the approval of both parties and the provision of security including by the Kosovo Police", it was said, among other things, in the answer.

The last parliamentary elections, which Serbia has organized for the Serbian community in Kosovo, were those of June 21, 2020.

Those elections were held according to an earlier practice, where the mission in Kosovo of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe collected the votes. Those votes were then counted in Raska and Vranje, two border towns of Serbia.

This practice of collecting votes by the OSCE in Kosovo was created as early as 2017 and the Kosovo authorities allowed this until last year.

In 2022, officials of the ruling party in Kosovo, the Vetëvendosje Movement, said that Serbia should make a direct request to Kosovo to hold these elections on its territory.

In April of that year, elections were held in Serbia, and for the first time, the Government of Kosovo did not allow elections to be held on the territory of Kosovo.

As a result, Kosovo Serbs have organized and traveled to Serbia by bus to vote.

In January of that year, the Assembly of Kosovo also approved a resolution, through which the holding of votes in Kosovo for a referendum of Serbia on constitutional changes was opposed.

The QUINT countries (the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and France) and the European Union had regretfully awaited the adoption of the resolution.

The international community has repeatedly called on the Government of Kosovo to find ways to hold Serbian elections.

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has repeated several times that Kosovo does not want to deny the right to vote to the citizens of Kosovo with dual citizenship, but that it cannot be acted against the legality and constitutionality of the country.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence, and since 2011 has been engaged in dialogue mediated by the EU, with the aim of normalizing relations between the two countries.

The parties have signed many agreements, but not all of them have been implemented./ REL