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Serbia will hold a referendum on Sunday on amendments to the constitution that would change the way judges and prosecutors are elected.
Kosovo’s parliament has approved a resolution banning ethnic Serbs from voting on Kosovo land in a national referendum on a change in Serbia’s constitution.
Serbia will hold a referendum on Sunday on constitutional amendments that would change the way judges and prosecutors are elected, the government says, with the aim of securing an independent judiciary, a condition for membership of the European Union.
Supporters of Kosovo’s independence – the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and the EU mission – have called on Prime Minister Albin Kurti to allow Kosovo Serbs to vote in a referendum.
But at an extraordinary meeting on Saturday, 76 of the 120 deputies voted in favor of a declaration banning Serbia from opening Kosovo polling stations.
Kurtik told parliament that setting up polling stations in Kosovo’s majority Serb areas would be unconstitutional, and that ethnic Serbs could vote by post or at the Belgrade government’s Pristina liaison office.
“Kosovo is an independent and sovereign state and should be treated that way,” Kurtik said.
Serbia, which is part of its territory, has been holding elections for ethnic Serbs since the end of the Kosovo War in 1999.
Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence, but has pledged to normalize relations with its former fugitive province before joining the EU.
The head of the Serbian Office for Cooperation with Kosovo said the ban was “a violation of the political and civil rights of Serbs.” [in Kosovo]”.
“Kurtik and his extremists should not think that Kosovo Serbs will be banned from voting in the future, especially in the April 3 elections,” Petar Petkovic said in a statement.
Serbia is holding presidential and parliamentary elections on April 3.
On Saturday morning, Kosovo police confiscated two trucks from the Serbian election commission to go to the majority areas of Serbs who were carrying ballot papers crossing the Merda border.
“We urge the Kosovo government to exercise the right of Kosovo Serbs to vote in elections and electoral processes in accordance with this established practice,” Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States and the EU said in a joint statement on Friday. .
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