Kosovo Opposition Rejects Guaranteed MP Seats for Minorities

The Kosovo Democratic League and the ‘Vetevendosje’ Movement, both opposition parties, said on Monday that they would not be held to ransom by Serb MPs who have threatened to abstain in a crucial vote next week on constitutional changes to establish a Kosovo army if they don’t get agreement on future minority representation.

Ismet Beqiri, an MP from the Kosovo Democratic League, LDK, said on Monday that “these are two different issues which cannot be linked to each other”.

“One thing is sure: the LDK will not under any circumstances vote for the maintenance of guaranteed seats for minorities,” he told reporters.

The Kosovo parliament is to vote on the transformation of the current Kosovo Security Forces into the Kosovo Armed Forces next week, but representatives of the Serb minority have announced they will abstain if they are not granted reserved seats in parliament for another four years.

Since 2008, the Kosovo parliament has had 20 seats reserved for minority communities.

Of those 20, ten seats were reserved for Kosovo Serbs, while the others were reserved for the Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian, Bosniak, Turkish and Gorani communities. Any seats won through elections were granted in addition to these reserved seats.

But according to the 2007 plan for the status of Kosovo drawn up by UN special envoy Marti Ahtisaari, this is to be abandoned after the next parliamentary elections.

Political parties representing the Kosovo Serb community, the Ahtisaari plan said, “shall have the total number of seats won through the open election, with a minimum ten seats guaranteed if the number of seats won is less than ten”.

However the ruling Kosovo Democratic Party of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci insists the...