"Despite campaign boycott, Serbs will participate"

"Despite campaign boycott, Serbs will participate"

He believes that "Belgrade can do a lot in the political and partisan sense," but that the Serbian state has its hands tied "because these elections for the international community do not have the importance of a direct implementation of the Brussels agreement, as do local elections, and that is why officials of Belgrade will not even be able to attend."

"Belgrade can influence elections through parties and by sending a unified message," this analyst further told the RTS, adding that "Belgrade has not sent the right invitation to Kosovo Serbs to participate in elections," but that he expected this would happen "in a couple of days."

The Serb List said it was opting for a boycott since ballot papers had "the coat of arms of Kosovo" printed on them, and that the electoral material was thus not status neutral. Janjić said it was a "result of an agreement between Belgrade and Priština, according to the Brussels agreement these elections are under the laws of Kosovo."

"These are the same emblems that were there before, these are the emblems of the RIK," he was quoted as saying. Janjić then "reminded of the fact that the Serb List last time also cited it as a reason for giving up the campaign," describin it as "their mechanism not to conduct, but to actually conduct a campaign."

"Belgrade can and must quickly send a clear message that these people should go to the Kosovo parliament and the government of Kosovo in order to carry out the Brussels agreement, or to take part in elections for the sake of form so that someone does not make objections to Belgrade," Janjić was quoted as saying.

Regarding the statement of President Tomislav Nikolić this week at the UN Security Council that a decision on whether Serbs would participate would be made later, Janjić said it was true that his statements "in New York and before New York stirred spirits in the north a bit."

Noting that there are two groups of politicians there, of which the more influential, bigger group is "eager to boycott elections," the analyst said he "understood that President Nikolić has some ideas about new ways of solving problems, and in northern Kosovo, this is linked to copying the Russian model toward Crimea."

"That's why they want to wait, especially since the president announced some kind of agreement on this with Prime Minister Vučić," Janjić said.

Campaign

The election campaign started in Kosovo on May 28. 31 tickets vying for seats in the 120-seat assembly: 19 political parties, seven civic initiatives, one independent and four coalitions -- some 2,000 candidates in total, Beta reported.

The biggest anticipated face-off will be between the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, led by incumbent Premier Hashim Thaci, and Isa Mustafa's Democratic League of Kosovo, the news agency said.

Roughly 2,800 domestic and international observers will be monitoring the vote, including envoys from the European Union, embassies accredited in Kosovo and several non-governmental organizations.

The entire Serb List withdrew from the election campaign after the Central Electoral Commission decided not to include Serbian representatives in voting councils south of the Ibar River, and over the issue of seat distribution and an announced 70,000-vote threshold for minority tickets, Beta said.

The Serb LIst consists of the Srpska Civic Initiative, the Independent Liberal Party and the Serbia, Democracy, Justice Civic Initiative of Oliver Ivanović.