Kosovo parliament - No debate on election law

PRISTINA - Serb MPs walked out of the Friday's sitting of the Kosovo parliament, which was scheduled to debate on amendments to the election law, in which they were joined by the representatives of ethnic communities.

The parliament sitting was suspended over lack of quorum and will most likely resume next week.

Serb MP Biserka Kostic told Tanjug that the Serb representatives did not take part in the work of the Kosovo parliament because they demand that the election law be taken off the agenda, and confirmed that their demand was backed by other non-Albanian and non-Serb MPs.

Earlier today, officials of the Citizens' Initiative Srpska urged the Serb MPs not to take part in the work of the parliament and to demand that the bill of amendments to the Law on General Elections be removed from the agenda as it is discriminatory against all ethnic communities, Srpska's leader Vladeta Kostic told Tanjug.

The Serb officials have informed the representatives of the international community about this issue, added Kostic, and expressed hope that they will exert pressure on the Pristina authorities to prevent the adoption of such a law.

Kostic explained that under the new election law the rights of Serbs in KiM would be restricted. The number of eligible Serb voters would be reduced, and the control of the electoral process would then be carried out by Albanian parties. Besides that, the internally displaced Serbs who are now living in other parts of Serbia would then face even more difficult procedure for registering and exercising their right to vote and, finally, the number of seats for Serbs and other minorities in the parliament would be permanently slashed, as the reserved seats would be abolished.

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