Belgrade Condemns Kosovo’s Invalidation of Votes from Serbia

Serbia has condemned as a "chauvinistic farce" a decision by electoral authorities in Kosovo to declare invalid more than 3,700 votes sent from Serbia during an October parliamentary election in the former Serbian province.

Kosovo's Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, ECAP, on Monday ordered a recount of votes from more than half of polling stations and declared 3,782 ballots sent from Serbia invalid.

The votes from Kosovo Serbs living in Serbia were delivered by Serbian officials, unlike previous years when the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, was in charge of their handover.

Political parties and civil society groups in Kosovo argued this was illegal because diaspora votes are supposed to be submitted by post.

The director of the Serbian Office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, said the decision aimed at effectively formalising the expulsion of Serbs from Kosovo.

"Only the Serbian votes from central Serbia, without any meaningful explanation, were abolished in this chauvinistic farce, thus treating the expulsion of our people from Kosovo and Metohija as politically irrevocable," Djuric said in a statement on Monday.

"Internally-displaced Serbs have not only been prevented from living by their centuries-old hearths but have been denied the right to express their political will in any way."

Votes delivered by Belgrade's Pristina envoy

ECAP, in its decision, noted that boxes with the votes from Serbia were delivered to the post office in Kosovo by Belgrade's liaison officer in Pristina, Dejan Pavicevic, and another person who did not identify himself.

The ruling was triggered by a raft of complaints, including from a coalition of three parties - the Social Democratic...