June 8, 2010

8. June 2010.

Riza Halimi: We are Pleased with the Albanian National Council Election Results

At the first elections for the Albanian National Council in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, Riza Halimi’s Party for Democratic Action (PDA), which is the oldest party in the region, won the greatest number of votes (81 per cent). The remaining votes went to the list of candidates proposed by the Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA) of Rahmi Zuljfiju. The Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), the Leader of which Ragmi Mustafa, the current president of the municipality of Presevo, and the Democratic Union of the Valley (DUV) of Skender Destani, MD, boycotted the elections and announced that they would refuse to acknowledge the election results.

“Such results were expected. At the pervious local elections, the PDA managed to achieve the same results and showed that it was in favor of integrations in the region. The most significant thing is that the Albanians recognized the importance of establishing the council, which is demonstrated by a high voter turnout. The voter turnout in Medvedja was over 75 per cent, while it was 59 per cent in Presevo and almost 51 per cent in Bujanovac”, said the PDA Leader and MP Riza Halimi.

How did the election campaign go, considering the fact that two parties were in favor of boycotting it from the very beginning?

Despite the anti-election campaign, which was run by the DPA and DUV, and in spite of a rather short period of time for mobilizing the voters, we succeeded in overcoming the problems. There were also difficulties with establishing a common list of candidates, but we put a great deal of effort into making it possible for the event to pass transparently and without any major problems. The Albanians from the region showed that they have a high awareness about having their representative body at last.

What are going to be the priorities of the Albanian National Council?

„Primarily the education-related issues, such as the curricula, textbooks and non-recognition of Pristina University degrees. There are also problems with the official use of the Albanian language. Those problems aren’t of the recent past, but we must now resolve them much faster. There are also difficulties in the field of culture and cultural co-operation with the Serbian governmental institutions. A lot of work awaits us and that’s why it’s important that the voters understood it. “

What attitude is the Albanian National Council going to take towards decentralization and is it going to have any specific demands regarding the autonomy of Albanians in South Serbia?

„The Law on National Minority Councils is clear about that issue since it envisages some kind of cultural autonomy. We are certainly going to tackle the issue by solving the problems that Albanians are faced with in the southern Serbian region. In my opinion, by having a greater autonomy, we’ll be able to solve the problems faster and to reduce the risks of possible inter-ethnic conflicts that we used to have in the region that borders on Kosovo and Macedonia.”