Ivanovic Family Protest Name’s Misuse in Kosovo Elections

The family of the murdered Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic have asked the Kosovo Election Commission to forbid the main Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista, SL, from using his name in the October elections after a senior official of his party defected to the SL.

Relatives said the SL - which is close to the Serbian government - did not share the same values as Ivanovic, who was shot dead in January 2018 in front of his movement's office in the north of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica. He was seen as a political moderate who advocated coexistence between Kosovo's Serb minority and Albanian majority.

"Our obligation is to protect the principles and values for which Oliver advocated and fought for, which in the end cost him his life," Ivanovic's nephew, Aleksandar, said on Twitter on Thursday.

The family spoke out after the surprise move of Ivanovic's one-time ally, Ksenija Bozovic, vice-president of his civil initiative, Serbia, Democracy, Justice, to join the SL ahead of the elections.

She has made the move even though a SL official, Milan Radoicic, is wanted in Kosovo on suspicion of involvement in the murder.

Radoicic has fled to Serbia and remains at large there, enjoying the protection of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who has said that Radoicic is not guilty. Kosovo police have issued a warrant for his arrest.

A former loud critic of Srpska Lista, Bozovic announced on Thursday she would join the list of the party for the October 6 Kosovo elections, adding that she had agreed her political transfer directly with President Vucic.

"We don't have another state [except Serbia]. For us, Srpska Lista is Aleksandar Vucic, and we will support Aleksandar Vucic," Bozovic told the Serbian news website Insider.

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