’Srpska’ polling staff member arrested in Pasjane village

Zoran Stojanovic, Srpska official and member of the polling staff committee in the village of Pasjane, was arrested and placed in detention in Gnjilane, eastern Kosovo, around 10 a.m. on Tuesday and has not yet been released, the campaign staff of the list in Gracanica said. The release also said that Bojan Trajkovic, Dragan Nikolic, Aleksandar Denic, Goran Stojkovic and Svetislav Petrovic, all of whom are Srpska officials and observers in or members of the polling staff committees in the municipality of Partes, were called to a police station with no explanation stating reasons for that given to them, on Monday.“The pressure against Serbs continues, and the international community, especially the OSCE, which in charge of ensuring fairness in the pre-election and electoral processes, is not doing anything to stop this kind of mistreatment of Serbs,” the Citizens Initiative Srpska campaign staff said. The Srpska campaign staff pointed out that the police has been arresting and questioning Serbs in Partes and Pasjane for no particular reason for two months now.
“We condemn the mistreatment of Serbs in the strongest terms and urge all concerned to take action and stop this intimidation ahead of the second round of the local elections in Kosovo,” Srpska said. In the first round of elections for councilors of local assemblies, Srpska amassed the highest number of votes in ten Serb-majority municipalities. The second round of elections is scheduled for December 1 and will take place in 24 municipalities, including in seven where Serbs make up the majority. The candidates from the Srpska list, which has the support of the Serbian government, are running for mayors against the candidates of two other Serb parties – the Independent Liberal Party and the Alliance of Kosovo Serbs – which have the support of the government in Pristina.