June 7, 2010

7. June 2010.

First Elections for Representatives of Ethic Minorities in Serbia

The elections at which over 400,000 members of ethnic minorities from 161 municipalities elected their representatives for the National Minority Councils were held for the first time in Serbia yesterday. The Ministry for Human and Minority Rights promulgated a total of 77 lists, while most lists were submitted by the Vlach and Roma ethnic minorities. Until 5 pm, 37.57 per cent of voters went to the polls, while the greatest turn out was in the regions of Vojvodina and Sandzak. The final voting results are going to be announced on June 9, 2010.

19 ethnic minorities are going to elect their National Councils, 16 of them through direct elections, while Croats, Macedonians and Slovenians are going to elect their national councils indirectly.

Voting for the Albanian National Council in the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja went off smoothly, while all polling places were opened on time.

Albanians voted for Riza Halimi’s Party for Democratic Action (PDA) and Rahmi Zuljfija’s Democratic Union of the Albanians (DUA).

Riza Halimi, the Leader of the Party for Democratic Action, said that he expected that the elections for the Albanian National Council would be successful, since the point at issue was a new project and a very important institution that would operate in the interest of the Albanians from South Serbia. Mr. Halimi expects that „a series of grave problems, which arose over the past twenty years, will be solved through the National Council, and the prospects for life of new generations would be provided.“

Naser Aziri, the Leader of the Democratic Union of the Albanians’ faction, also underscored the importance of the elections for the Albanians from South Serbia. He said that this was an opportunity for the Albanians to once again show that they were willing to exercise their individual and collective rights, in partnership with the governmental bodies and international community.

„These are the first elections at which ethnic minorities are going to elect their representatives and will, thus, have an influence on their rights in the fields of education, information, official use of their language and script, as well as in the field of their culture. National Minority Councils have the competencies regarding identity issues”, said Petar Antic, Assistant Minister for Human and Minority Rights.

Dimitrios Kypreos, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, said that elections for the National Minority Councils had passed without any major problems.