Serb List presents candidates for municipal president positions in local elections

The Serb List today presented its candidates for municipal president in all 10 municipalities with a Serb majority. The leader of the Serb List, Zlatan Elek, said these were people who had proven themselves in action and demonstrated their commitment to defending Serb interests. Among the candidates, he added, are also new faces who have shown excellent results.

The Serb List’s candidate for president of the municipality of Leposavic is Zoran Todic; Sasa Milosevic will run in Novo Brdo; Ivica Tanasijevic in Strpce; Milos Perovic in Zubin Potok; Dragisa Milovic in Zvecan; Novak Zivic in Gracanica; Tanja Antic in Ranilug; Dragan Petkovic in Partes; Bozidar Dejanovic in Klokot; and Milan Radojevic in North Mitrovica.

In Obilic, the Serb List will nominate Goran Dancetovic.

Elek announced that the Serb List would have candidates for municipal assembly seats in nine municipalities where Serbs do not constitute the majority—Gnjilane, Istok, Klina, Kosovo Polje, Kamenica, Lipljan, Obilic, Pec, and Vucitrn.

“In total, we will have 239 candidates for assembly members under this beautiful Serbian flag,” Elek said, adding that among them are 96 women who, with their knowledge, determination, and love for the people, will stand shoulder to shoulder with their male colleagues in defending their homes and the interests of Serbs in Kosovo.

He stressed that unity is essential for Serbs, as they face great challenges.

“We must be united so that in the political struggle ahead we can win, so that citizens get the proper representatives they deserve—and we all know what I mean. At a time when many who want to expel Serbs are uniting, we must not divide and weaken our position. Therefore, I call on you to be united on October 12, to confirm with your vote that we are one, and that Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija will always have their representatives, their strength, and their voice. Long live the Serbian people, long live the Serb List,” Elek said.

The deputy leader of the Serb List, Igor Simic, said that in some municipalities with a Serb population, the party would not have candidates for assembly seats because there are not enough Serbs to win mandates.

“We did not want to expose those people to pressure from the regime in Pristina. In areas where there are not enough Serbs to win mandates, we do not have candidates—but that does not mean we have forgotten them, because funds from the state of Serbia are still being invested in those areas,” Simic said.

Expecting Obstructions from Pristina in Local Elections

When asked whether Pristina had done everything to block the Serb List in the parliamentary elections, Elek replied that they expect even more obstructions at the local level.

“We do not expect any change in the behavior of the Pristina authorities. We expect obstructions at the local level, perhaps even more than in the parliamentary elections,” Elek said.

Asked about expectations in Gracanica—where the majority Albanian parties have united on a joint list—Serb List candidate Novak Živic said he did not want to comment on other political parties, but that this was an additional reason for Serbs to unite in the elections.

Recalling that the Serb List has been criticized for lacking political pluralism, Simic noted that such comments are not heard from international representatives today, even though those who cannot form a government in Pristina are uniting to contest municipal president positions in places like Gracanica.

“This worries us because we see a tendency by the central authorities in Pristina to register voters from majority-Albanian municipalities into Serb-majority municipalities, especially south of the Ibar, in order to change the voter structure and potentially the ethnic composition,” Simic warned.

Regarding the number of Serb voters, since the demographic picture in the north has “weakened,” Simic said that because the process of changing polling places—between municipalities or within the same municipality—is still ongoing, there is no final voter list yet to give a precise figure.

However, he pointed out that the Serb List must be careful with the data it presents, as there are those in Pristina who do not want to see the party as the political representative of the Serb people.

Asked what demands of the Serbs have been met since they left the institutions in 2022—given that they are now participating in the elections—Simic replied that their representatives did not leave the institutions because they were tired of fighting for Serbs, but to draw international attention to the fact that the entire Serb people had been deceived by promises to fight for their rights and interests and to insist on respecting signed agreements, and that their human rights would not be endangered.

“We gave them three years to show how sincere they were in their desire to fight for the Serb people and preserve what they themselves proclaimed in 1999, when they said they would preserve the multiethnic character of Kosovo and Metohija. You have seen that this is not the case. In short, they looked after their own interests. We are once again fighting to be in a position to decide our own fate, but now aware that the hypocritical approach of international representatives has led to the fact that Serbs today are living their most difficult days in Kosovo and Metohija since 1999,” Simic said.