After much confusion over the last days in which the current political reality of Kosovo has been wrapped, in the end it has become clear that what we anticipated earlier, will happen: on 11th May, Serbia will hold parliamentary and local elections in Kosovo. UNMIK has agreed with the principle of holding these elections in Kosovo, whilst their colleagues in the government have positioned themselves in support of this policy.

Instead of saying NO to Serbia’s elections in Kosovo, UNMIK and the government of Kosovo have halfheartedly said: Delay them. This reveals that they do not think these elections are intolerable: they have a problem with the timing and with their own legitimacy, and not with the legitimacy of Serbia holding elections in Kosovo. Serbia’s holding of elections in Kosovo represents a direct violation of Kosovo’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. No state organizes and holds parliamentary and local elections inside another sovereign state. Organizing elections inside the defined territory of a state, with a single election system under the competences of that state, is a distinctive characteristic of sovereignty. Fatmir Sejdiu has tried to explain the holding of Serbia’s elections through the right of dual citizenship that is accorded to Serbs in Kosovo through the Ahtisaari Plan. This is a naïve deception because in all the places in the world in which dual citizenship exists, the citizens of state A vote in the elections of State B by post or in the embassy that State B has in State A. This occurs for example with Mexicans who hold both Mexican and US citizenship: they can vote in Mexican elections by post or at the Mexican Embassy in the USA. The simple fact that they are obliged to vote through the Mexican Embassy, demonstrates that Mexico recognizes the USA. But the moment that State B enters with its own structures inside State A, organizes parallel elections there, on which it will build parallel political institutions – this becomes an uncontestable threat to the independence and sovereignty of that state. This is what threatens Kosovo through the elections of 11th May that Serbia is intending to hold inside Kosovo.  

The holding of Serbia’s elections inside Kosovo is not simply a formal violation of the sovereignty of Kosovo. This is not an issue about just any state holding elections, but about Serbia, which has treated us in the past criminally, which today is trying to occupy us through parallel state structures, and which in the future has open territorial pretensions towards our country. The past, present and future military and political actions of the Serbian state have been and will be (as they tell us each day through the declarations and actions of Serb politicians and soldiers) the refusal to recognize us, and the obstruction and undermining of the state of Kosovo with all means. One of these means is the parallel structures inside Kosovo. Serbia, which opposed the Ahtisaari Plan, uses these parallel state structures to incite Serbs of Kosovo to refuse to recognize the state of Kosovo. This has been done on purpose to open a new negotiations process, where Serbia will secure even more than she was given in the Ahtisaari Plan. And the parliamentary and local elections that Serbia intends to hold in Kosovo, as well as deepening the institutional, ethnic and territorial division, will create a parallel structure of Serb representatives inside Kosovo. Serbia has announced that it will hold elections in 23 municipalities in Kosovo. All the parallel structures which are created by these elections will not accept Kosovo as their state, but only Serbia. Serbs from Burim (Istog) will vote for a Serb municipal president who will represent this municipality. In the future, Serbia intends that as a result of pushing Serbs not to recognize the state of Kosovo, there will be new negotiations, on which occasion this Serb representative of Burim will become the head of the new Serb municipality of Osojan that Serbia is trying to found from the Serb villages of Burim. The election lists of the political parties of Serbia, available on the webpage of the Serbian Election Commission, are full of candidates from Kosovo. In the list of Boris Tadic’s party a candidate from the village of Mogillë in Vitia figures. This village will be given to the new Serb municipality of Kllokotit-Vërbocit through the process of decentralization. On the other hand, Hashim Thaçi declared that the government will not recognize Serbia’s elections in Kosovo. This provides a green light for them to be held, since it doesn’t matter whether the government recognizes these elections or not, but whether it stops them or not. Because the problem is not our refusal to recognize these elections, but that these elections demonstrate a refusal to recognize us and our sovereignty. A condition of the right of a Mexican who lives in the US and has dual citizenship, to vote in Mexican elections, is recognition of the US state given in his oath of allegiance. A Mexican with US citizenship who lives in the US cannot represent the Mexicans of the US in the Parliament of Mexico! In addition, Mexicans who live in the US federal state of Arizona, for example, vote for their representatives inside the representative institutions of this state, but they are not allowed to create a parallel representation that doesn’t recognize Arizona. The right being offered to Serbia could be exploited by other states: for example, will Turkey also have the right to hold parallel elections for Turks, or Bosnia for Boshniaks etc? On 11th May Serbia will offer Serbs of Kosovo two options: the elevation of parallel political structures to the local level, which will not recognize the local government of Kosovo; and the possibility of representation for Serbs of Kosovo in the Serbian parliament, and not in Kosovo. This strategy de-integrates Kosovo even more at the local and national level. At the local level it will isolate Serbs even more, and increase their loyalty towards the parallel structures of Serbia, whereas at the national level it will deepen even further the distance of Serb representatives from Kosovo, from the parliament and institutions of Kosovo.

The second serious step towards the undermining of Kosovo’s sovereignty, after the occupation of the north of Kosovo by Serbia, is the holding of Serbia’s elections inside Kosovo. Those who recognize us seriously expect serious steps from us. The US State Department made it known that Serbia’s elections should not be held in Kosovo. The Foreign Minister of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, made a similar declaration. On the other hand some others, such as the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Oli Rehn, referred to the Ahtisaari Plan, justifying it through dual citizenship, and this also seems to be the shameful position of the government of Kosovo. But if the international community is itself divided on this issue, we should have one unequivocal position: Categorically against the holding of Serbia’s elections in Kosovo.

Vetevendosje (self-determination) Movement opposes international administration of Kosovo.