Serb List: Through a constitutional complaint, we are defending the right of Serbs to choose their own representatives

Serb List today submitted a constitutional complaint to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo against the Supreme Court ruling that rejected its appeal regarding the allocation of one of the parliamentary seats reserved for the Serbian community to Nenad Rasic. The party considers that the challenged decisions failed to provide effective constitutional and legal protection for the institution of reserved parliamentary seats intended for the Serbian community.

According to the statement, the constitutional complaint was not submitted for the protection of a single political entity or a single parliamentary mandate.

Its essence, as stated, is the protection of the constitutional right of the Serbian people, as well as other non-majority communities, to authentic political representation, which represents one of the fundamental principles underlying the constitutional position of non-majority communities in Kosovo.

The complaint argues that the Central Election Commission, the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, and the Supreme Court failed to address a key constitutional and legal question: whether the constitutional purpose of reserved parliamentary seats is preserved if representatives of the Serbian community are chosen by votes from voters who do not belong to that community.

Serb List considers that reserved parliamentary seats were not introduced as a formal privilege, but as a constitutional guarantee protecting the right of the Serbian people and other non-majority communities to choose their own authentic political representatives.

The Constitutional Court has been asked, for the first time, to provide a clear constitutional interpretation of the content of this guarantee and determine whether the current application of electoral legislation ensures its actual purpose or reduces it to a formal institution without effective protection.

“If it were accepted that political representatives of one community can be decisively elected by members of other communities, then the very purpose of reserved parliamentary seats would be called into question, not only for the Serbian community but also for all other non-majority communities to which the Constitution guarantees special political representation,” Serb List stated.

By submitting this constitutional complaint, Serb List emphasizes that it is not only defending the election result, but above all defending the constitutional principle that Serbs and other non-majority communities have the right to independently and authentically choose their political representatives. Otherwise, it states, the meaning of constitutional guarantees established to protect the collective rights of non-majority communities would be called into question.

Serb List expects the Constitutional Court to approach this case professionally and responsibly, taking into account not only the individual electoral dispute, but also the long-term consequences that its decision may have for the constitutional position of the Serbian people and all non-majority communities in Kosovo.

On July 7, the Supreme Court of Kosovo rejected as unfounded all five appeals submitted against the decisions of the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel regarding the final results of the early parliamentary elections. Among them was the appeal by Serb List, which claimed that the party For Freedom, Justice and Survival won the guaranteed seat for the Serbian community mainly through votes from polling stations in areas with an Albanian majority.

On July 3, Serb List announced that, after the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel rejected its appeal, it had submitted a complaint to the Supreme Court because one of the seats reserved for the Serbian community had been allocated to Nenad Rasic based on what it described as non-Serbian, predominantly Albanian votes.