North Mitrovica: police clear Technical School hall

Kosovo police asked people gathered at the Technical School in North Mitrovica to leave the hall on October 7, after receiving word that a campaign rally for Serbia’s parliamentary elections on October 25 was being held in the building. The attendees left without incident, confirmed Veton Eljsani, deputy commander of the Kosovo Police for the North region. Srpska Lista officials were seen at the scene, and the party had not commented by the time this story was published.

What did police say about entering the school?

Eljsani told KoSSev why police responded:

“We received information that an election campaign for Serbia’s elections was being held at the Technical School. We had already been instructed by the competent authorities not to allow any Serbian campaign gatherings on the territory of Kosovo.”

He did not say who issued that instruction. Asked by KoSSev whether officers went inside the school itself, Eljsani said they did: “We went in. People were already entering the hall at that point, and we told them to leave.” According to him, police found a large group gathered, including Srpska Lista officials. Nova.rs published the news at 14:18.

Campaign rally or training session?

So far, only the police say this was a campaign rally. According to their account, the people gathered said on the spot that it was a training session for education workers. Eljsani does not accept that:

“However, we already had operational information that it was a campaign rally. Otherwise we would not have gone in there if it had really been a training session.”

He repeated the same line to Radio Free Europe, with a message for the rest of the campaign: “They told us it was some kind of training, but they left the premises. We had information that a campaign rally was under way, and campaign rallies for Serbia will not be allowed in Kosovo.”

KoSSev reports that it has not been officially confirmed who organized the gathering or who was supposed to attend. Unofficially, from several sources, it learned that activists and officials of Srpska Lista were present. KoSSev sent the party questions: whether it organized the gathering, who took part, whether it coordinated with Belgrade or Pristina, and what it will do after the police intervention. No reply had arrived by publication.

How will Kosovo Serbs vote on October 25?

On October 5, the Republic Electoral Commission decided that voters from Kosovo will cast ballots in four municipalities in central Serbia: Vranje, Raska, Kursumlija and Tutin. Voting on Kosovo territory will not be organized. The same was true at the presidential and parliamentary elections on April 3, 2022, and at the snap parliamentary elections on December 17, 2023, after Pristina refused in early 2022, for the first time, to continue the practice under which the OSCE Mission collected votes in Kosovo. Pristina wants Belgrade to file a formal request to open polling stations, and Serbia refuses, arguing that doing so would amount to recognizing Kosovo’s independence.

The question of campaigning in Kosovo had come up before this case. According to a post on the Facebook page “Students Win, Kosovo Pomoravlje,” a group of students from the University of North Mitrovica asked the Kosovo Police in late September for permission to hold campaign events in Ranilug, Silovo, Klokot, Strpce, Gracanica, Leposavic and North Mitrovica. Radio Free Europe does not say whether a reply came. The student movement told the weekly Vreme that Kosovo authorities “do not consider Kosovo an integral part of Serbia,” which it said could make political activity harder or endanger the safety of campaign participants.

Srpska Lista, the leading party of Kosovo Serbs, has backed Aleksandar Vucic’s list “United Serbia.” Opposition representatives of Kosovo Serbs have backed the “Students Win” list, among them politician Nenad Rasic, a minister in the government of Albin Kurti.