There will be no ethnic Albanian MPs in Serbia’s parliament after Shaip Kamberi failed to win a seat in this week’s repeat elections.
618 of 1050 eligible voters participated in the repeat parliamentary elections for the town of Ternoc, municipality of Bujanoc. While the Albanian coalition won 598 of those votes, it needed another 11 to secure a seat.
The results of the April 3 elections in Serbia showed a devastating result for Albanians, who lost all three seats gained in previous elections after the leaders of Albania and Kosovo had pushed their local politicians in a grand coalition.
However, two weeks after elections, Serbia’s Election Commission declared repeat elections in 89 polling stations throughout the country, crucially including Presheva Valley, where Albanian candidate for MP Shaip Kamberi needed 609 more votes to secure his seat.
Over the years, the Serbian government has enacted policies to systematically remove Albanians from the civil registry in the Presheva Valley, which have proven to be an effective tool to strip them of their voting and other basic human rights.
Furthermore, Albanian parties failed to strike a coalition to help them acquire the necessary votes to be represented in Parliament.
Read more:
- Failed Coalition Costs Ethnic Albanians All Seats in Serbian Parliament
- The Consequences of Vucic’s ‘Passivization’ Campaign on Thousands of Albanians in Serbia
