Kosovo Election Complaint Highlights Problem in Proving Ethnic Identity

A decision by Kosovo's Election Complaints and Appeals Panel to bar a candidate from running in the February 14 elections - because he is standing for an ethnic Bosniak party and is allegedly Albanian, not Bosniak - has raised a dilemma about people's rights in Kosovo to determine and confirm their ethnicity.

Emin Neziraj was intending to stand as a candidate in the election for the ethnic Bosniak New Democratic Party, NDS.

Neziraj told BIRN that his party had submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court over the PZAP decision that stops him from running, insisting he has all the necessary documents to prove he is, in fact, an ethnic Bosniak.

"I have filed the appeal at the Supreme Court where we [NDS] have noted that some points [of the PZAP decision] do not match. In the Kosovo system, there is no space for someone to claim an ethnic identity - all that is possible is getting a certificate from a special office in the municipality stating that you are of a certain ethnicity," Neziraj told BIRN Kosovo.

The dispute started after the PZAP on January 23 accepted a complaint about Neziraj from a rival Bosniak party running in the election, the Social Democratic Union, SDU.

The SDU said Neziraj had admitted he was Albanian on Facebook on October 7, 2017, and should not therefore run in the election as a member of a different ethnic community.

The PZAP justified its decision citing concerns that, as an ethnic Albanian, Neziraj might "protect the interests of Albanians, having run on the list of a party from the Bosniak community", creating "uncertainty about the equitable representation of that community for which seats are reserved" in the national parliament.

Kosovo's constitution describes the country as a "multi-ethnic...