Chief Belgrade Negotiator: Empty Ballot Boxes Indicate Debacle of Kurti, International Community

Petar Petkovic/BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/

Petar Petkovic, the director of the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija and Belgrade’s chief negotiator in the dialogue with Pristina, said on April 24 that the results of the previous day’s elections in the territory’s north clearly testify to the vote’s anti-democratic nature.

“The ballot boxes were empty and that is the best indicator of the defeat and debacle of [Kosovo Prime Minister] Albin Kurti and the international community – and is a victory of Serbian unity,” Petkovic told the RTS public service.

According to him, the April 23 local elections held in northern Kosovo and Metohija were anti-democratic and against the Constitution, yet were supported by a significant portion of the international community, namely representatives of the West who stated that they would recognize the results of the vote.

“The fact that ballots were cast by only 1,567 of the 45,950 registered voters shows best that north Kosovo and Metohija completely boycotted the elections. Of these 1,567 [voters], only 13 were Serbs,” Petkovic stated.

The official highlighted the use of prefabricated containers for polling stations – complete with police guards carrying rifles – and insisted that “it is unheard of in the history of European democracy” for an election “aimed at forcing out an entire nation” to be organized at all, let alone under such circumstances.

“With such an election process and the fact that Albanians will now lead four Serb municipalities, whereby they will govern 98 percent of the Serb population in north Kosovo and Metohija, the Serbian people have completely withdrawn. This shows a new reality in the making. It shows that Serbs have stressed and underlined that there will be no further normalization of relations without the formation of a Community of Serb Municipalities. There actually won’t be any further progress at all until Pristina fulfills its most important obligation,” Petkovic concluded.