Kosovo Serbs Accused of Fixing Bosniak, Roma Election Results

Some political representatives of the Roma and Bosniak communities in Kosovo as well as civil society organisations have claimed that the seats their representatives obtained in Kosovo's parliament in the February elections were essentially arranged by the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista.

Both the winning Roma and Bosniak parties received many of their votes from Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo on February 14, 2021, elections, raising suspicions that these parties collaborated with Srpska Lista to get votes.

Veton Berisha, of the Egyptian Liberal Party, PLE, is one of the minority politicians raising questions about the alleged interference of Srpska Lista in the election results.

His allegation is that Srpska Lista - certain of victory within the Serbian community - encouraged some of its supporters to donate their votes to non-Serb non-majority communities, in an attempt to gain more allies in the Kosovo parliament.

A total of 20 of the 120 seats in the Kosovo Assembly are reserved for non-Albanian communities - 10 for Serbs and 10 for other communities - Roma, Ashkali, Egyptians, Bosniaks, Turks, and Gorani.

On Friday, the PLE said the election results published by the Central Election Commission show that "it is clear that 'Romani Initiative' is a product of" such collaboration, as it received votes from areas "where the Roma community does not live".

Romani Initiative, a new citizens' initiative competing for the four seats allocated to the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities, received 3,827 votes, coming first out of nine entities competing for the seats.

It is expected to get both the seat reserved for the Roma and an additional seat that goes to the most voted party from among the...