The Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP) annulled all the votes for Bosniak political entities in Serb-majority municipalities, in Kosovo’s February 14 parliamentary elections.
The decision was made based on the complaint of representatives of Bosniak, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities claiming that the citizens’ initiative Ujedinjena Zajednica – Adrijana Hodzic (UZ-AH) and Roma Initiative secured votes with the help of Srpska Lista (Serbian List).
With this decision, the ECAP annulled 4,205 votes ensured by the Bosniak political entity UZ-AH led by Adrijana Hodzic, in Serb-majority municipalities.
According to the final result of the Central Election Commission (CEC), UZ-AH won 6,422 votes or one seat in the Assembly of Kosovo.
Votes that went for other Bosniak political parties in Serb-majority municipalities were also annulled but in a smaller number.
ECAP also annulled over 800 votes of the Roma Initiative with the help of the Serbian List. Roma Initiative had won 4,049 votes.
Following the decision of ECAP, parties can file their complaint at the Supreme Court within 24 hours.
Ehat Miftaraj from Kosovo Law Institute (IKD), an institute that has provided free legal aid to non-Serb communities, said earlier that it is about manipulating around 10,000 votes.
“Based on the complaint we have prepared, there are 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.
20 out of 120 seats of Kosovo’s Parliament are reserved for non-majority communities, 10 for Serbs, four for Romani, Ashkali, and Egyptians, three for Bosniaks, two for Turks and one 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.
