Unmik must call and hold local elections in Kosovo
Serbia’s minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said Unmik must call and hold local elections in Kosovo on May 11, after Unmik chief Joachim Ruecker said only the UN had authority to organize elections there.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, April 11, 2008
He said there was a possibility of the international mission giving Serbian institutions the authority to organize local and parliamentary elections in the province.
After visiting Kosovo and meeting with UNMIK officials, Samardzic recalled that when local and parliamentary elections had been held in Kosovo in November, the mission had transferred authority to the province's institutions to organize the elections.
"We expect them to do the same now, only this time to the Serbian institutions," he said.
During the 2002 Serbian local elections, UNMIK did not transfer authority to Serbian institutions, but organized the elections itself, but Samardzic said that the situation had been a lot different back then.
"It is a completely different situation because the Albanians declared independence unilaterally on February 17, and because UNMIK is, in a sense, no longer implementing Resolution 1244 in agreement with Serbia," the minister explained.
Earlier, Ruecker said that Serbian local elections in Kosovo would "violate resolution 1244".
He said "only UNMIK can hold elections in Kosovo and all other elections will not have any kind of value".
