The Serbian list announced that it will participate in the Kosovo elections on February 9 next year.
This decision followed a day after, as they say, the President of the Assembly of Kosovo "prevented the representatives of the Serbian List from participating in the work of the Assembly.
They called it a "shameful incident and a violation of the law, human and political rights of Serbs, guaranteed by international regulations."
Members of the Serbian List, which has been boycotting the sessions of the Assembly of Kosovo since November 2022, appear in the Assembly once every six months in order to maintain their mandate and ensure the continuation of their salaries.
On Thursday, December 5, MPs from the ruling Self-Determination Movement party, as well as the Speaker of the Assembly Glauk Konjufc, prevented them from entering the Assembly, accusing them of misuse of public money.
The international representatives in Kosovo from the Serbian List were called because they "remain silent about everything", and as they say from that party, at all meetings they were "asked to participate in the elections and in the work of the institutions".
"They are silent when the democratically elected representatives of the Serbian people are expelled from the parliament by the president of the Assembly, which showed the highest level of hypocrisy and inconsistency," Srpska Lista said in a statement posted on Facebook.
This leading Serbian party in Kosovo claims that they are "never stronger" and that as such they will "win all ten mandates intended for the Serbian people and preserve the unity and harmony of the Serbian people in these areas" in the elections.
Until Friday's announcement, it was not entirely clear whether the Serbian List - which enjoys the support of official Belgrade - would participate in the elections, although its leader Zlatan Elek announced his participation last month.
In the current composition of the Kosovo Assembly, nine out of ten guaranteed seats for the Serbian community belong to the Serbian List.
Its deputies do not participate in the sessions, due to "strategic action" - as they described the boycott of Kosovo institutions - but appear once every six months, so as not to lose their mandates.
Members of the Serbian List were registered in the Parliament without any problems until the incident on Thursday.
The Democratic Institute of Kosovo assessed on Thursday that the president of Konjufac and members of the parliamentary majority illegally prevented the members of the Serbian List from participating in the parliamentary session.
"Although the Serbian List has been boycotting the work of the Assembly since 2022, and they appeared in the Assembly only to avoid completing their mandate, the obstruction of their presence at today's session represents a violation of the constitutional mandate of the deputies," said the Institute, which adds that it continuously criticizes the Serbian List which does not participate in the work of the Assembly.
Earlier participation of the Serbian List in the elections
Since its establishment in 2013, the Serbian List has received over 90 percent of the votes of voters from the Serbian community in almost all election processes in which it participated.
However, this party has twice boycotted local elections in northern Kosovo municipalities following the November 2022 initiative for Serbs to leave all Kosovo institutions, including the police and judiciary, in North Mitrovica, Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok. The reason for such a decision was the insistence of the Government of Kosovo to cancel the license plates issued by Serbian authorities for cities in Kosovo.
Local elections were then boycotted by other Serbian political parties, and Albanian mayors came to power in four municipalities with a Serbian majority in the north of Kosovo.
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