Kosovo Serbs Eye Belgrade Ahead of Elections

Marko Jaksic, a political analyst from the mainly Serbian northern part of Kosovo, says the turnout in the Kosovo elections will be lower if Serbia does not put pressure on Kosovo Serbs to vote, as it did in the last local elections held on November 17.

Jaksic was referring to the local polls in which Serbs participated and elected Serbian mayors to ten out of the 38 municipalities across the country.

The Belgrade-backed Srpska list gained significant support in the 2013 polls and won in almost all the Serbian-dominated municipalities.

Previously, local Serbs boycotted elections organized by the authorities in Pristina, saying they refused to accept Kosovo’s independence or its institutions.

“Belgrade will have an impact on the turnout in elections if it pressurizes the Serbs”, Jaksic said.

The Srpska list is planning to establish a united Serbian list, including all the Serbian parties in Kosovo, for the general elections.

Nexhmedin Spahiu, an analyst from the southern part of the divided town of Mitrovica, said Serbian parties could be a major force in and after the polls.

“If 80,000 Serbs cast ballots in these elections, there won’t be 13 MPs but 25 or 26, or at least 20,” Spahiu said.

Since 2008, the Kosovo parliament has set aside 20 seats for minority communities.
Ten seats were guaranteed for Kosovo Serbs while the others were set aside for the Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian, Bosniak, Turkish and Gorani communities.

But, according to the 2007 plan for the status of Kosovo, drawn up by UN special envoy Marti Ahtisaari, this is to be abandoned after the next parliamentary elections.

Aleksandar Stojanovic, head of the Mitrovica-based NGO, Center for the Development of Local...