Kosovo citizens to elect assembly members from 31 lists

PRISTINA – A total of 31 electoral lists have been submitted to Kosovo’s central electoral commission ahead of the June 8 elections for the provincial assembly.

Nenad Rikalo, the sole Serb member of the commission, has said that nine ethnic Albanian, five Serb, six Bosniak and three Roma lists have been submitted, with the ethnic Turk, Gorani, Ashkali and Egyptian communities each submitting two lists.

A total of 19 political parties have submitted their lists, as have seven civic initiatives, four coalitions and one independent candidate, Rikalo said.

Serbs will be represented in the elections by the Srpska list, which will have 67 candidates, and the Movement for Democratic Prosperity and the Progressive Democratic Party, which will have 26 and 24 candidates, respectively, he said.

The Independent Liberal Party and Social Democracy have submitted lists with the minimum numbers of candidates despite being on the Srpska list, Rikalo said.

This was done to retain the positions in municipal electoral commissions and poling station commissions, he said.

Under the law on general elections, civic initiatives and newly-established political parties are not allowed to name candidates for the commissions, which is a right reserved for political parties that were also represented in the previous assembly, Rikalo explained.

A total of just over 2,000 candidates will be running for the 120 seats in Kosovo’s assembly.

Photo Tanjug/Boki (ilustration)