Adnan Rrustemi

The winning party in Kosovo's October election, Vetevendosje, filed a challenge at the Supreme Court on Tuesday against a decision by electoral authorities to rule invalid votes sent from Serbia, potentially costing the party three seats in parliament.

Scheduled local elections in four northern mainly Serbian districts of Kosovo were thrown into crisis on Wednesday when the Central Election Commission, CEC, failed to certify candidates from the main Serbian party in Kosovo, Srpska Lista.

The candidates did not receive the necessary support from the CEC, meaning their candidacies have been rejected.

At a meeting of Kosovo's Central Election Commission on Tuesday, Vetevendosje refused to vote in favour of certifying candidates from the Srpska Lista party to run in the May 19 polls, arguing that three of them had breached the constitution by resigning as mayors of the same municipalities in which they want to run for office again.

Adnan Rrustemi, member of the Central Election Commission, CEC, from the opposition Vetevendosje party, told BIRN that his party believes the list of voters in Kosovo contains serious defects and inaccuracies, such as faulty addresses and names of dead persons.

The voting list also includes over 600,000 persons, which is more than the total number of residents with voting rights.