Radakovic: Diaspora should not have its own representatives in Parliament

Dusan Radakovic, Executive Director of the NGO Center for the Advocacy of Democratic Culture (ACDC), says he opposes reserved seats for the diaspora in Parliament because, in his view, it does not have a realistic understanding of life in Kosovo.

Radakovic criticized the fact that five parliamentary seats were secured through diaspora votes in the June 7 elections.

"Five seats in Parliament is a large number. It is completely unrealistic for five mandates to be won by people who do not live here, who have no real picture of the situation, and who do not experience the everyday problems that exist in Kosovo, whether economic issues such as water and electricity, or political problems and pressure. By having five members of Parliament elected by people who have not lived in Kosovo for years, perhaps even more than 30 years, and who only hold Kosovo ID cards, you are literally creating an imaginary picture of life in Kosovo," he told Kosovo Online.

He believes that introducing reserved seats for the diaspora would benefit Self-Determination.

He noted that the diaspora has generally voted for the ruling parties, regardless of which party is in power, and that in the most recent elections it supported Self-Determination.

"In the previous period, in 2018, the PDK also received a significant number of votes from the diaspora, though not as many as Self-Determination has now, because the votes were spread across two or three parties, whereas Self-Determination received 80 percent of the diaspora vote this time. On the other hand, it turned out that a much smaller percentage of people voted in Kosovo itself because trust has generally declined and people are exhausted by elections. I believe the diaspora should not have its own representatives. Too many diaspora votes went to a single party, and that is not democratic," Radakovic said.