State commission denies intent to rig election in Kosovo

State commission denies intent to rig election in Kosovo

Dimitrijevic responded by saying that in adopting the instructions, the commission "took into account that the ruling majority has one, while the parliamentary opposition has two members in election committees at each polling station, as well as that, during the entire electoral process, an OSCE representative will be present at each polling station."

He said that the commission also "had in mind the decision of the Constitutional Court and sought to enable Serbian citizens residing in Kosovo to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to participate in the selection of the state authorities of Serbia."

Dimitrijevic noted that organizing elections in Kosovo with OSCE's "direct support and under its auspices" is a practice established in 2012, which means that the April 2 elections represent no precedent.

The RIK president concluded by "condemning the fact that the security and political situation in Kosovo and Metohija is being misused in order to accuse RIK of planning an alleged election fraud."

Earlier in the day, opposition groups in the Serbian National Assembly of the Enough is Enough Movement (DJB), the DSS party, and Raskovic-Ivic's New Serbia - For Serbia's Salvation all strongly condemned the instruction.

The DJB said that current Prime Minister and ruling coalition's presidential candidate Aleksandar Vucic "plans to use fictitious votes from Kosovo and Metohija to achieve victory in the first round."

"The instruction provides that, upon the closing of the polling stations, bags with ballot papers be transported outside of the southern province (Kosovo) and that the counting of the votes is done in Vranje and Raska. In other words, as in previous elections, the goat will guard the cabbage," a DJB statement said.

This movement also pointed out that local election committees in Kosovo will be made up of "only three members proposed exclusively by parliamentary parties, while other candidates will not be able to nominate their members to the committees' extended composition - which will be possible in all other municipalities and cities in Serbia."