"Serbs showed responsibility by voting in Kosovo election"

"Serbs showed responsibility by voting in Kosovo election"

At a news conference in Kosovska Mitrovica on Sunday evening, Đurić said that by casting their ballot in the elections, Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija stood by their state, underscoring that now in the province"we have a clearer picture and better situation when it comes to the future of the entire political process."

The director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija underlined that Sunday's elections opened up a clear and more secure perspective for the formation of a community of Serb municipalities (ZSO).

"Serbs of Kosovo have today stood by their state and that is a significant indicator that we have reached a phase when through joint efforts and discipline, organization and commitment, we can fight for our goals, maybe in the way previously used by our opponents in this entire process we are in today," he said.

Đurić said that talks on contentious decisions by the Central Election Commission (CEC) will be open in the coming days, in relation to the distribution of seats.

"As we were saying even before the elections started, the fact that the rules were changed just several days before the polls is illustrative of the irresponsible approach that some of key political actors in Priština took to this process," Đurić said.

Normalization

Chairman of the Serbian parliament’s Committee on Kosovo Milovan Drecun said Monday that the results of the elections for the Kosovo assembly showed that the Albanians in Kosovo were aware that their future largely depended on normalization of relations with Belgrade.

Drecun told reporters in the Serbian parliament that the very low voter turnout in Kosovo and Metohija was "proof of enormous discontent of the people with the way the outgoing administration in Priština had been finding answers to their everyday problems."

Commenting on turnout of Serbs in Kosovo, Drecun noted that it had been lower than in the last local elections, which showed that the people recognized the importance of local elections for their daily life while not attaching the same importance to the presence of Serb representatives in the provincial parliament in Priština.

Still, the parliament in Priština will play a considerable role in passing laws important to the creation of a community of Serb municipalities and we expect a unified approach by Serb representatives and their full coordination with the government in Belgrade, said Drecun.

He said the Serb turnout had been good, if one took into account everything that had been taking place before the elections and the fact that the invitation from the government of Serbia for them to go to the polls had come just days before the elections, which was why there had been no real campaign.

Drecun also expressed the expectation that the Serb deputies would work together to successfully prevent passage of pieces of legislation that were against their interests, such as the bill on the creation of the so-called Kosovo security force.