Maliqi: If Serbs participate in elections in northern municipalities, no one else can take power

Political analyst Shkelzen Maliqi told Kosovo Online that issues concerning minorities in Kosovo, including the determination of the number of councilors in municipalities where the Serbian community makes up the majority, cannot be decided unilaterally, because, according to both the Ahtisaari Plan and Kosovo’s laws, the consent of the other side is always required.

Although the Central Election Commission has reduced the number of councilors in the assemblies of four northern municipalities, Maliqi believes that it is not possible for someone else to take power in these Serb-majority areas, provided that Serbs do not boycott the electoral process as they did last time.

If someone has been harmed by the decision to reduce the number of councilors, he says, it is likely that a petition or complaint can be filed and reviewed by the relevant authorities.

“Dialogue can also be a place where this is addressed, but the Community of Serb Municipalities and, more broadly, the resolution of the status of the Serbian minority in Kosovo implies that such matters cannot be resolved without the participation and voting of minorities. That applies to all minorities in normal democratic states, and we, not just Kosovo but the whole Balkans, are still not normal,” Maliqi said.