SERBIA: OSCE criticizes Serbian election boycott and plans to provide mobile polling stations on trucks

Head of OSCE mission for Kosovo says the organisation "deplores and criticises" calls by Serbs to boycott Kosovo's general elections and will be planning to provide mobile polling stations on trucks in case of current polling stations becoming inaccessible to voters. Head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Friday (November 16) the Organisation deplored and criticised Serbian effort to crush Kosovo's General and local elections scheduled for Saturday (November 17). "Yes we know about these appeals, appeals from Belgrade, appeals from local Serb politicians, calls for abstaining, calls for boycotting of these elections. We deplore this, we criticise this because these elections are fully based on the Security Council resolution 1244, based on Kosovo law, based on the according provisions by the special representative of the United Nations here. So I think we are basing these elections on the obligations of everyone here and that is the reason why these calls have been criticized", Ambassador Tim Guldimann told Reuters Television. "We hope that it will be possible to have access to the sites where we are planning to have the polling stations, but in case that these sites are not going to be accessible we are preparing to have mobile polling stations on lorries to be put on the site where we are planning already to hold the elections", Guldimann said. The breakaway province of Kosovo will be holding parliamentary elections on Saturday, ahead of a looming showdown with Serbia over the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence. Prime Minister Agim Ceku is stepping down, so the election will bring in new leadership as renewed negotiations between Serbia and the Kosovo Albanian yet again ended in clashes of interest with no resolve. Reluctant to give legitimacy to a parliament threatening to declare independence, Serb leaders and the Orthodox Church have told Kosovo's 120,000 remaining Serbs to boycott the elections. OSCE together with the Central Election Commission of Kosovo, is helping local Kosovo authorities with technical preparations for the November 17 election and it will administer counting of the votes and results centre. A total of 69 organisations were accredited to observe the election process. The Council of Europe, the biggest international observation organization will have 250 observers. More than 25 thousand observers, both local and international will observe Saturday's elections.

ITN Source | November 17, 2007

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