Kosovo Election Commission Rejects Main Serbian Party Candidates

Scheduled local elections in four northern mainly Serbian districts of Kosovo were thrown into crisis on Wednesday when the Central Election Commission, CEC, failed to certify candidates from the main Serbian party in Kosovo, Srpska Lista.

The candidates did not receive the necessary support from the CEC, meaning their candidacies have been rejected.

CEC members from the opposition Vetevendosje [Self-determination] party abstained from the vote, noting that several of the candidates used to be mayors of the northern municipalities, and had resigned for unlawful and unconstitutional reasons.

Vetevendosje also called on Srpska Lista to distance itself from the content of the resignation letters of the former mayors, where they referred to Kosovo by the Serbian term as "Kosovo and Metohija".

"The CEC's purpose is to organise the elections but we have to respect other laws and the constitution too", said Adnan Rrustemi, a member of the CEC from Vetevendosje.

"We also expect them [the would-be mayors] to distance themselves from the promise that they will withdraw [from office] immediately [if they win the elections]," he added.

Srpska Lista was not immediately available for comment.

After the vote, Stevan Veselinovic, from Srpska Lista, said the decision of Vetevendosje to abstain represented a political attack on the Serbs in Kosovo.

Members of the CEC from the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, did not support Vetevendosje, saying politics was not the job of the CEC. "The CEC is not an institution that regulates the Kosovo political scene," Sami Hamiti from the LDK said.

Kosovo President Hashim Taci called the elections for the four northern Serbian municipalities after their local mayors all resigned in protest...