Kosovo Serbs ahead of Early Parliamentary Vote

Serbian list (BETA/Armenija Zajmi Besevic)

The Serbs in Kosovo will be represented by four political groups in an Oct. 6 early parliamentary vote, namely, the Serb Ticket-Aleksandar Vucic, with the Serb Ticket’s vice-president, Igor Simic, heading the list of candidates, the Freedom coalition, led by Nenad Rasic, Slobodan Petrovic’s Independent Liberal Party and Aleksandar Jablanovic’s Party of Kosovo Serbs. The Serb Ticket is expected to win a landslide victory, but it is still unclear if the party will manage to win all the 10 seats that belong to the Serb ethnic minority in Kosovo.

The critical pre-election political score for the Serb Ticket is certainly a coalition with the Civil Initiative Freedom, Democracy and Justice, founded by Oliver Ivanovic, a Kosovo Serb politician assassinated in Kosovska Mitrovica, on Jan. 16, 2018. A decision by the Initiative to join the Serb Ticket came as a surprise, as some Serbian opposition politicians, independent media and non-governmental organizations had made an indirect link between the Serb Ticket officials and Ivanovic’s murder. Ivanovic was an informal opposition leader in the Kosovo Serb community, and a sharp critic of Serbia’s ruling bloc, led by the Serbian Progressive Party.