‘Srpska’ list doubts regularity of electoral roll

In an open letter sent to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on Monday, Srpska’s candidate Rakic warns that the entry into the north Mitrovica electoral register of Albanians from south Mitrovica is a clear indication of a desire to make the north part of Kosovska Mitrovica look majority-Albanian. “We demand the OSCE mission to work together with EULEX and investigate into how the Albanians from south Mitrovica were entered into the ‘Kosovska Mitrovica - North’ register, and to launch proceedings against those responsible for the violation of voting rights and violations of the electoral process and to inform us, before the election day, about actions taken based on this demand,” Rakic said. Rakic pointed out that the final electoral register for northern Kosovska Mitrovica totals 28,429 voters, which is 514 more compared to the number in the electoral register from November, or 486 voters more than in the preliminary electoral register from January 31. He said that the president of the Municipal Election Commission has argued that the body is not authorized to enter new voters in the electoral register because this is possible only based on a court decision – and these courts are operating as part of the Kosovo judicial system. The election campaign for the mayoral elections kicked off in north Mitrovica yesterday, and will last for only five days, until Friday at midnight. There are four candidates in the race for the mayor’s office. Belgrade-backed Citizens’ Initiative Srpska nominated Rakic their candidate, and the Citizens’ Initiative ‘Serbia, Democracy, Justice’ (SDP) has put Oliver Ivanovic in the election race. An international judge ordered one month detention for Ivanovic following his arrest on January 27 on suspicion of involvement in alleged war crimes in 1999, post-war incidents in 2000, and in an aggravated murder. The SDP list campaign slogan is ‘Victory for freedom’. The two other candidates for north Mitrovica mayor are Fljorent Azemi of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) and Musa Miftari of the Democratic League of Kosovo (DLK).