Eurasia Press & News
Kosovo opposition parties’ efforts to have the OSCE monitor the November 15 local elections have been in vain.Central Elections Committee, CEC, Spokesperson Fehmi Ajvazi confirms that the CEC will be the only body organising the upcoming polls, with the OSCE playing no role.
“The OSCE have stated more than once that their role has changed. Therefore, the OSCE will not monitor the elections of November 15,” Ajvazi told a local daily, Lajm.He added that “the role of the OSCE in Kosovo is focused on increasing the capabilities of institutions, since it has a neutral stance towards the status of Kosovo”.
A spokesperson for the OSCE, Edita Bucaj, explained to Balkan Insight, “the OSCE has never monitored elections in Kosovo. Previous elections were monitored by the Council of Europe”.
The deputy head of the opposition Alliance for a New Kosovo, Ibrahim Makolli, said that the mission should monitor the elections in Kosovo.
Fellow opposition member Burim Ramadani, of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, considers the monitoring of the elections by either the OSCE or Council of Europe an integral element of Martti Ahtisaari’s status plan, which envisages internationally-monitored independence for Kosovo.
