“Thaci manipulated votes”

12 January 2011 | 12:34 | Source: Beta, Tanjug

PRIŠTINA -- Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) leader Isa Mustafa says that Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci should be held responsible for manipulating more than 20,000 votes. A polling station in Kosovo (FoNet) He points out that Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) received 20,000 more votes in municipalities of Srbica and Glogovac on January 9 than on December 12, 2010. Mustafa says that the Kosovo PM “plays dirty” and that he “has lost his compass”. “We don’t want such criminal government in Priština,” he told Priština-based daily Kosova Sot, adding that the irregularities had repeated in the second round of elections and that citizens’ constitutional right to choose their new government had been violated. Mustafa stressed that based on the way the elections had been held one could not determine who was first and who second. “I’m saying this for a reason, because if a party loses 20,000 votes in two municipalities on January 9 then a serious question comes up – how did they get the votes in the remaining municipalities. I am very convinced that the LDK would have been the first party if we had had fair and legitimate elections, we would have at least been equal to the PDK,” he was quoted as saying. European Parliament (EP) Rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek also voiced doubts over regularity of the elections on Tuesday. She says that proposals of certain political parties to hold new parliamentary elections in Kosovo at the end of the year should be seriously considered bearing in mind numerous irregularities. She told Kosovo Radio Television that she had been observing the elections in some municipalities on Sunday and that she had personally seen manipulations. “Kosovo is a single elections zone. The (election) system has many deficiencies, therefore we should start preparations as soon as possible so the elections would be held by the end of the year, which some political parties suggested,” Lunacek concluded.