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Attempts to squeeze Serbs out of Kosovo’s parliament to end up in catastrophe — president

Under Kosovo’s constitution, 100 out of 120 seats in its parliament are allocated to ethnic Albanians while the remaining 20 seats are contested by representatives of national minorities

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic

© AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic

BELGRADE, October 14. /TASS/. Attempts to squeeze the pro-Serbian Serb List party out of Kosovo’s political life will inevitably end up in a catastrophe, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday.

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"I would like to point to the attempts to waive the results of the Serb List, a party that won 96% of Serbs’ votes in Kosovo, a party that enjoyed Belgrade’s support. They invented a story with poisoned envelopes with ballot papers sent from Serbia. Notably, all the Albanian members of Kosovo’s Central Electoral Committee turned out to be poisoned while not a single Serbian member was affected. They obviously want to squeeze the Serb List out [of parliament]," he said at a meeting with speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house Valentina Matviyenko.

"It will tell catastrophically on relations between the Serbs and Albanians because there will no longer be any Serbs in power institutions and they will be unable to defend their freedoms and rights," he stressed.

According to Vucic, pressure on the Serbian party is being cranked up by the Albanians together with their Western partners. "We asked the Western partners not to help them. Otherwise, I am afraid, we are heading for a catastrophe. All they did they did together seeking to neutralize the Serb List. Obviously, they pooled their efforts for that," he said.

According to the Central Electoral Committee of the unrecognized Republic of Kosovo, the leftist-nationalist Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party, led by Albin Kurti, won the October 6 parliamentary elections and will have 30 seats in Kosovo’s parliament. The Democratic League of Kosovo will have 29 seats, the Democratic Party — 25 seats, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo jointly with the Social Democratic Party — 14 seats.

Under Kosovo’s constitution, 100 out of 120 seats in its parliament are allocated to ethnic Albanians while the remaining 20 seats are contested by representatives of national minorities, including ten seats by the Serbs. According to the poll’s results, all those ten seats will go to the Serb List party.

However, Pristina seems to be dissatisfied with the Serb List’s performance. On Sunday, the Central Electoral Committee stopped counting votes coming from Central Serbia claiming that the envelopes with ballot papers from Serbia were highly ‘allergic’ for its members.

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