Vučić to discuss elections with Kosovo Serbs

Vučić to discuss elections with Kosovo Serbs

BELGRADE -- Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said on Tuesday that he would meet with representatives of Serbs in Kosovo discuss elections called there for June 8.

According to Tanjug, Vučić told reporters that he did not consider some decisions by the Kosovo’s Central Election Commission to be "commonsensical," but that it would "also not be good for Serbs not to take part in the elections."

“We need to behave responsibly and in accordance with the state interests and the Serbian government will make a decision of that kind,” Vučić said.

He said that the presidents of the municipalities in Kosovo would receive instructions and he was confident that they would know how to pass them on to the Serbian people.

The election campaign in Kosovo began on May 28 and on its very first day, the Serb representatives froze their participation due to controversial decisions the election commission made earlier in the election preparations.

The commission decided that the ballots should carry the symbols of "the Republic of Kosovo" unilaterally proclaimed as independent by ethnic Albanians in the province and not recognized as such by Serbia, "and that the polling staffs of municipalities south of the Ibar river are not to comprise Serb representatives," Tanjug reported.

Representatives of Serbs have requested that any "symbols of Kosovo statehood" be removed from the ballots, "as it constitutes a violation of the Brussels agreement, which stipulates status neutrality in the process of normalization of relations between Belgrade and Priština."

In addition, they demand "the discriminatory decision by the commission to be repealed...