Rikalo: New election law will reduce rights of Serbs

The rights of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) would be reduced in at least four aspects, Rikalo said in a statement to the Frankfurt-based daily.He explained that the number of eligible Serb voters would be reduced, and the control of the electoral process would then be carried out mostly by Albanian parties. Besides that, the internally displaced Serbs who are now living in other parts of Serbia would then face even more difficult procedure for registering and exercising their right to vote and, finally, the number of seats for Serbs and other minorities in the parliament would be permanently slashed, as the reserved seats would be abolished.Amendments to the election law envisage that only those holding Kosovo's citizenship would have the right to vote, which means that only those who have documents issued by the Kosovo Interior Ministry would be able to register in the electoral roll. That would diminish the number of Serbs eligible to vote to around 40,000, which is several time less than the real number, Rikalo said.He noted that in previous local elections, around 130,000 eligible Serb voters were on the electoral roll, but that over 250,000 displaced Serbs could apply for voting in KiM according to the criteria that are now in place.However, if the amendments to the election law were passed, the displaced persons who would like to claim their voting right would have to prepare the evidence concerning Kosovo's citizenship, and then start the registration procedure.In the event of regular elections, that procedure lasts 45 days, and in the case of early elections - just 12 days, Rikalo noted, saying that it is impossible to prepare the evidence concerning citizenship and complete the entire procedure within such a short time frame."In addition to this technical hindrance, a political issue also arises- how to explain to such a great number of Serbs that they have to get Kosovo's citizenship in order to vote," Rikalo said, adding that the issue of citizenship was not addressed during the EU-facilitated talks on the normalization of relations that Belgrade and Pristina have so far held in Brussels.According to the new election law, every political party of Serbs or any other community would have to pass the electoral threshold of five percent in order to secure seats in the parliament.With a limited number of voters, Serbs in the parliament could never again have more than 10 seats, Rikalo said.According to the valid election law, Serbs could have between 18 and 22 MPs, he explained."That is a drastic difference in leverage that Serb MPs could use to further the rights of their community," Rikalo stressed, warning that the proposed changes to the law may not only jeopardize the rights of Serbs, but also Turks, Roma, Ashkali and Bosniaks.With these amendments to the law, the Albanian majority showed that it is repressive toward Serbs, and that there could be no positive perspective for the rights of ethnic communities in Kosovo-Metohija in the future, Rikalo concluded.