DSS: Electoral farce in Kosovska Mitrovica

There was collective voting at the repeated elections in Kosovska Mitrovica on Sunday, such that did not exist even during communism, he noted. "There was pressure on the heads of government companies to get their employees to vote and on the employees to get their families to vote," Samardzic stated. Those organized groups were then tasked with walking from one polling station to the next to create the impression that the people were voting in large numbers, he said. He described Krstimir Pantic and Oliver Ivanovic, the two mayoral candidates who entered the second round, as the pathetic winners of the elections, adding that they were supposed to wash away the dirty dealings that had taken place concerning the poll. Kosovska Mitrovica was under siege on Sunday, since there were more members of verious security forces than voters, he said. He listed the Kosovo police, KFOR, US marines, Italian Carabinieri and unidentified security agencies as present during the elections, adding that normal elections could not be held in such circumstances. "Whatever the number of people who voted, the elections cannot be recognized as legitimate because of those circumstances," he said. The figure of 5,200 people who voted is doubtful, he stated, adding that the organization Third Serbia put that number at between 1,600 and 1,700. The DSS will not support Oliver Ivanovic as candidate for mayor in the second round, Samardzic said.