Kosovo Serb Claims Electoral Roll Contains Illegal Albanians

Goran Rakic of Srpska has sent an open letter to the OSCE Mission to Kosovo, alleging that voters of Albanian nationality have illegally been put on the register for the mayoral vote in Mitrovica."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," Rakic said. Rakic urged the OSCE to work together with the EU law and order mission, EULEX, and investigate how the Albanians from south Mitrovica got on to the register, and to launch proceedings if need be. He made the complaint a day after the electoral campaign for the north Mitrovica mayoralty, scheduled for February 23,  got underway. This will be a repeat vote, as Krstimir Pantic, also from "Srpska", elected mayor late last year, refused to sign his oath of office because it included Kosovo state insignia, albeit with paper glued on top, to hide it. Besides Rakic, there are three more candidates at this time: Oliver Ivanovic, of the Social Democratic Party Civic Initiative, who is in police detention; Musa Miftari, of the Democratic League of Kosovo; and Florent Azemi, of the Democratic Party of Kosovo. According to the Kosovo Central Electoral Commission, 28,429 voters are eligible to cast ballots in this election, 500 more than in the last polls in November.