Call for Serbs to go to polls in large numbers

GRACANICA - The Serb List held a closing rally in Gracanica on Friday ahead of the early parliamentary elections in Kosovo, calling on Serbs to go to the polls in large numbers and thus help further the interests of the Serbian state and people in the province.

On behalf of the Serbian government, Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic urged Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) to cast their ballot on Sunday, and underscored that the state of Serbia will never give up on Kosovo-Metohija.

He said that by securing a large number of seats in the interim institutions in KiM, Serbs will thwart the intentions of the hard-line circles in Pristina to keep the Serb people on the margins of political life in the province.
"Only unity and responsibility toward oneself can make our fight effective and stop extremists in these areas from achieving their final objective, that being the separation of KiM from Serbia," the minister said.

Branimir Stojanovic, who heads the Serb List, said that the meeting in Gracanica is not an election rally, but the gathering around the idea of Serb unity.

Marko Djuric, director of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija, told the present that their state is urging them to cast their ballot on Sunday "in what we do not call elections, but rather a method of political fight for securing seats as our means for gaining control over political life in the province".
"After we take positions in the provincial institutions and the interim provincial assembly from Albanians, the next key step for us will be the formation of a community of Serb municipality," Djuric said.

"The rules of these elections are neither fair nor simple, and have deliberately been made in such a way to deter us from fighting for what is...

Continue reading on: