BELGRADE, Sept 7 (Hina) - Representatives of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on Saturday turned down a request of Belgrade to hand over the lists of eligible voters in Kosovo for the coming presidential election in Belgrade.
BELGRADE, Sept 7 (Hina) - Representatives of the UN Mission in
Kosovo (UNMIK) on Saturday turned down a request of Belgrade to hand
over the lists of eligible voters in Kosovo for the coming
presidential election in Belgrade. #L#
The UNMIK officials held a meeting with representatives of the
Serbian authorities in Belgrade today after Serbian Premier Zoran
Djindjic had announced that Kosovo Albanians and other citizens in
the province would be included in the presidential poll, set for 29
September.
According to some estimates, there are about 900,000 ethnic
Albanians and some 100,000 other residents in Kosovo in such
lists.
The Serbian minister of local administration and self-government,
Rodoljub Sabic, said Belgrade insisted on the lists from Kosovo,
given that they had been used as a basis for the election for the
Kosovo parliament and given that citizens of Kosovo were citizens
of Serbia and had the right to vote and be elected.
If those 900,000 ethnic Albanians and other 100,000 citizens were
added to the electoral slates for the presidential poll in Serbia,
then the number of the eligible voters would rise from 6.5 million
(registered at the latest parliamentary election in December 2000)
to some 7.5 million. In this case at least 3.7 million voters must go
to the polls at the presidential vote, as the law requires that at
least 51 percent of the registered voters should go to the polls in
order to proclaim the election valid.
During the last parliamentary elections in December 2000 when
Slobodan Milosevic was ousted, 3.5 million voters cast their
ballots.
(hina) ms