PRESHEVË, BUJANOC and MEDVEGJA – The Albanian Presevo Valley Coalition, which brings together four ethnic Albanian parties from southern Serbia, began Tuesday the collection of signatures required for participation in parliamentary elections, on May 6.
After lengthy negotiations, four of the six leaders of ethnic Albanian political parties from southern Serbia Monday night signed a treaty creating an electoral coalition for the parliamentary elections.
The signatures on the agreement were put by Riza Halimi from the Party for Democratic Action, leader of the Democratic Union of the Valley Skender Destani, President of the Movement for Democratic Progress Jonuz Musliu and leader of the Democratic Union of Albanians Rahmi Zulfiu.
After some previous bad experience, we have now made and signed an agreement that explains in detail the position of each member of the new coalition, and therefore negotiations lasted a long time, Destani told Tanjug. We have incorporated all the elements that will guarantee that the Albanians have their legitimate representatives in the Serbian parliament, Halimi said.
Theoalition was not joined by the leader of the Democratic Party, Nagim Arifi. The Albanian party which had earlier firmly decided to boycott the Serbian parliamentary election is the Democratic Party of Albanians, led by Mustafa Ragmi, President of Presevo municipality.
Ethnic Albanians urged to “boycott Serbian elections”
Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) leader Ragmi Mustafa is urging ethnic Albanian voters to boycott Serbian parliamentary and presidential elections on May 6.
Speaking during a party gathering in the southern town of Preševo, he also underscored that Albanians there and in Bujanovac and Medveđa “need to resolve their vital issues in Priština and Tirana” because, as he said, this is the shortest path to the EU.
The DPA is the strongest Albanian political force in Preševo and the backbone of the local government coalition ever since 2004, and Mustafa assumed office as the municipal president back in 2006.
According to a release issued earlier, four out of six Albanian parties will make a joint presentation at the May 6 parliamentary elections as part of the list “Coalition of the Albanians from Presevo Valley”.
The list includes the Party for Democratic Action headed by Riza Halimi, Movement for Democratic Progress headed by Jonuz Musliu, Democratic Union of Albanians headed by Rahmi Zulfiju and the Democratic Union of the Valley led by Skender Destani.
DPA headed by Ragmi Mustafa will officially boycott parliamentary and presidential elections while the Democratic Party led by the Nagip Arifi left it to voters to decide whether to turn out and vote.
