Oliver Ivanović says the agreement signed on Monday stipulates that the OSCE will only monitor Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections in Kosovo. The the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija also underlined on Tuesday that the polls will be organized by the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK). In a statement for Tanjug, Ivanović dismissed the claims by the government in Priština that the OSCE had taken it upon itself to organize the parliamentary and presidential elections in the province on May 6. The Kosovo Albanian authorities in Priština, meanwhile, issued a statement welcoming the OSCE decision to take it on itself to ensure that all conditions are met for the Serbs in Kosovo to vote in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
In the release, the government in Priština noted that “mobile polling stations labeled with OSCE symbols will be open in Kosovo on May 6, while the counting of votes will be organized outside the territory of Kosovo, taking into account that there is no Serbian embassy in the Republic of Kosovo and vice versa”.
The polling station staff will include representatives of the OSCE, but there will be no emblems of the organization at the polling stations since its role will be only “to monitor the elections and offer Serbia logistic support. That means that the OSCE will organize transport of election material, with the assistance of EULEX, since in the conditions of political tensions and the rigid stand of the government in Priština , we could not organize the elections in the entire territory of Kosovo,” Ivanović explained.
Full Article: B92 – Info – “OSCE will only monitor elections in Kosovo”.
