Political parties of non-Serb communities in Kosovo filed a complaint with the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP), demanding the annulment of votes coming from the Serb community for Bosniak and Roma parties in the February 14th snap parliamentary elections.
Representatives of Bosniak, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities claim that the citizens’ initiative Ujedinjena Zajednica – Adrijana Hodzic (UZ-AH) and Roma Initiative secured votes with the help of Srpska Lista (Serbian List).
Former MP representing Bosniak community for three mandates, Duda Balje from Socialdemokratska Unija (SDU) told media that she expects justice to be done on the issue.
“We have filed the complaint to the ECAP for an issue we think we are right and is a violation of the Constitution […] We think we are right and we expect the result. We are seeking the annulment of votes Bosniaks have from Serbs,” Balje said.
This is the first time Balje could not secure a seat in Parliament.
Ehat Miftaraj from Kosovo Law Institute (IKD), an institute that has provided free legal aid to non-Serb communities, said that it is about manipulating around 10 thousand votes.
“Based on the complaint we have prepared, there is violations of the will of the citizens of non-majority communities, we have a manipulation orchestrated by Srpska Lista with some Bosniak and Roma parties,” Miftaraj said.
“There are approximately 10 thousand votes from the Serbian community to at least two parties of non-majority communities,” he added.
According the results announced by the Central Election Commission, the Roma Initiative won two seats in the Assembly, while the Bosniak party UZ-AH secured one seat.
Balje warned that they will take the case to the Constitutional Court if necessary.
Veton Berisha, the leader of the Egyptian Liberal Party said that filing the complaint was a legal obligation. He added that their claim can easily be proven because the vote of the communities is related with the representatives elected by that community itself.
Hodzic herself earlier stated that these attacks had only one purpose “to preserve the seats that they lost”.
She added that she has no common political goals with Srpska Lista and would “certainly not” join the party’s parliamentary group.
20 out of 120 seats of Kosovo’s Parliament are reserved for non- majority communities, 10 for Serbs, 4 for Romani, Ashkali and Egyptians, 3 for Bosniaks, 2 for Turks and 1 seat for Gorans.
Srpska Lista secured 10 seats reserved for Serbs, while claims are that they want to increase their influence in Parliament among non-Serb minorities’ representatives.
