Doubts over claims of "status-neutral elections"

Former minister for Kosovo, now opposition DSS party MP Slobodan Samardzic told the newspaper that "statusneutral elections do not exist," and added:"This is a Brussels-made concoction which Belgrade, but not also Pristina, should accept so that it turns out that the November 3 voting has nothing to do with an independent Kosovo. According to the Brussels agreement and the plan of its implementation, these elections will be organized according to the Kosovo laws and are not status-neutral."Samardzic was also quoted as saying that "status neutrality made sense until the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence in 2008, and from that moment on, no one can act as if those were interim institutions of self-government in Kosovo, because they were canceled by the declaration of independence." He pointed out that official Belgrade behaves as if the municipalities in Kosovo "should with these elections transfer from the system of Serbia to the system of Kosovo." Bojan Stojanovic, the mayor of the enclave of Gracanica which functions within the Pristina government system, told the daily that "the Brussels agreement contains certain useful ambiguities that both negotiating sides believe will help them as a political analgesic." "If this election is status neutral, does that mean that in the second level of local government in Kosovo and there are ten extraterritorial municipalities? Everything's clear from the answers to the questions: who will organize the elections, regardless of how anyone refers to the institutions in Pristina, what is the system within which the community of Serb municipalities will work, which government and minister will be responsible for it? It is undisputed that the Serbs must firmly cooperate with Belgrade, but in practice they will be directly tied to Pristina," Stojanovic was quoted as saying. "The story of status neutrality began with negotiations mediated by Martti Ahtisaari. This solution showed up then, but no one had the courage and power to push it through in Serbia. This is not a new policy, it is the finalization of the policy of Boris Tadic. In the story about the status, Belgrade accepted everything - the Constitution, laws and institutions of Kosovo, everything except the international recognition of an independent Kosovo and exchange ambassadors," political analyst Dusan Janjic was quoted as saying by the press.