Radakovic: Voters are tired of election processes, I do not expect anything new in the campaign

The Executive Director of the Center for Advocacy of Democratic Culture in North Mitrovica, Dusan Radakovic, pointed out that he does not expect a pre-election campaign different from the one in February, stating that voters are tired of election processes, which will result in a lower turnout in the elections on 28 December.

The pre-election campaign for the snap parliamentary elections officially began today, and Radakovic told Kosovo Online that Serbian parties would focus on protecting the rights of Serbs, while Albanian parties would continue attacking one another, without concrete proposals for progress and improvement.

“If we are talking about Serbian parties, there will be nothing special in the new campaign. Municipalities have been returned, so now there will certainly be some other issues – the rights of Serbs and so on. As for the Albanians, nothing new. In the previous campaign we had that famous Ibar bridge, the closure of Serbian institutions, ultranationalism... I am afraid there could be some hasty moves by Pristina, but I think the European Union, due to the lifting of sanctions on Kosovo, will not allow that. We have not concretely seen what was talked about during the campaign actually happen, so it will be the usual things – mutual attacks, talk about corruption, who attacked whom more, who was more corrupt, but nothing concrete about improvement and what the new government would do,” Radakovic said.

According to him, because of all this, fewer voters will turn out for the elections on 28 December, and he expects turnout to be lower by as much as 10 or 20 percent.

“My projection is that all parties will now receive fewer votes, including Serbian parties. There are far fewer Serbian parties now than at the local elections, now there are only three Serbian parties in the race. It is expected to be 10 and maybe even 20 percent less, because there have been three election cycles – parliamentary, local, parliamentary, plus a second round of local elections in almost half of the municipalities in Kosovo, including South Mitrovica and Klokot, so voters are extremely tired of election cycles, elections, campaigns, posters and videos where there is nothing particularly new to say,” Radakovic stated.

Asked whether he expects Serbs in Kosovo to be a topic of Albanian parties’ campaigns, Radakovic answered affirmatively, emphasizing that Self-Determination, apart from ultranationalism and slogans about the north, has nothing to offer voters.

“We have seen in recent cycles the non-certification of the Serb List, first the certification of the list, then of candidates. This is a political pamphlet aimed at day-to-day political votes, so there will certainly be attacks on the Serb List, but also on other Serbian parties, and I am afraid that in the future it will be difficult for some parties to form coalitions with the Serb List because of the general positioning of sides: the Serb List on one side, and the other, Albanian, parties on the other. Self-Determination has nothing concrete to show from the past five years, only that ultranationalist slogan ‘the north is ours, we control it’. That is the only thing that ‘works’ for them and brings some votes, so they will certainly continue at that pace,” Radakovic concluded.