Nikolic: I hope the participation of Albanian parties in the elections in Gracanica will not result in tensions

Ivan Nikolic from the NGO Communication for Social Development (CSD) said he hopes that the participation of Albanian parties in the local elections in Gracanica, united in the “Albanian Alliance,” will not be reflected on the ground in a negative way or through tensions, adding that this is a serious indicator of how the municipality’s demographic structure is changing.

“It is difficult to specify, it is even hard to assume what things will look like after the elections, for the simple reason that we are now dealing with data that are not relevant, in this case, I mean the recent census that took place, or rather partially took place, so we don’t have accurate information about how many people actually live here. I think it would be much more relevant to draw a parallel with the voter rolls, and maybe based on that some assumptions could be made,” Nikolic said.

He recalled that in the previous term Albanian parties had one seat in the Gracanica municipal assembly, and that he expects, in this case, if their unification plan is fulfilled, they will have at least three. While, as he pointed out, this will not drastically affect decision-making on key issues in the Gracanica municipal assembly, he emphasized that it is nonetheless a serious indicator of what is happening and how the demographic structure of the municipality is changing.

“What happened is not unexpected at all, in fact, I expected it to happen even earlier, if we take into account the entire, as my colleagues in the media like to say, narrative about the Serb community from Albanian political representatives. What is happening now is absolutely not surprising. I sincerely hope that this will not be reflected on the ground in a negative way in terms of interethnic tensions, and I would truly appeal to all sides to accept it as a kind of fair sports game, which unfortunately it never really is, but at least to try and want it to unfold that way,” Nikolic said.

When asked whether Albanian parties could take power in Gracanica, Nikolic stressed that such a development cannot be expected in the near future.

“I think it is impossible for that to happen in these elections, but at this pace, in some future period, I would not be surprised if things move in that direction, especially if we take into account a certain lack of unity within the Serb community. I think that if serious work is not done on strengthening that unity, such a scenario awaits us in the future,” Nikolic concluded.