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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

By going to provincial elections Kosovo Serbs would give legitimacy to proclamation of independence

Belgrade, 9 November 2007

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said that Belgrade cannot recommend to Kosovo Serbs to go to parliamentary and local elections in the province because by doing that they would practically give legitimacy to the interim institutions that threat with unilateral proclamation of independence.

Slobodan Samardzic

Author: Tanjug

In an interview to Tanjug news agency, Samardzic said that the Kosovo interim institutions called the elections because UN Special Representative Joachim Rucker irresponsibly passed that right to them. Samardzic underlined that those are the same interim institutions that threat with self-proclamation of the province's independence.

We cannot force Serbs to vote for the institutions that will declare Kosovo's independence the next day and also we could not remain silent to such an inadequate position of the UN special representative and the interim institutions, the Minister pointed out.

He said that another important reason for the non-participation of Serbs in parliamentary and local elections, scheduled for November 17, is the possibility of manipulation of their votes.

Since we and Kosovo Serbs cannot have insight and control, we believe that it is less harmful that people do not go to the polls, than that their votes for local authorities are calculated as votes for the provincial parliament, Samardzic explained.

The Minister said that local elections and parliamentary elections were on purpose scheduled for the same day.

According to him, it is clear that in some municipalities Serbs have reason to cast ballot for local authorities, but even that could not have been accepted as there are big chances for manipulation. He noted that eight years following the introduction of international administration in the province, two-thirds of the Serb population no longer live in Kosovo-Metohija.

Samardzic stressed that giving a positive signal is quite absurd as well as keeping silent on the whole situation.

When Kosovo status is resolved, where Serbs will be satisfied with the institutions and when this issue is solved in a compromise between Belgrade in Pristina, then there will be elections in Kosovo-Metohija in which Serbs will participate, the Minister concluded.