The Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP) has rejected the appeal of the joint list of Serbian opposition parties in Kosovo, "Together We Win", against the decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) not to certify it for participation in the June 7 parliamentary elections.
The ECAP said on Saturday that, after assessing the complaint and evidence, it concluded that the Serbian opposition's complaint was "unfounded and untenable."
She said that the "Together We Win" list had failed to meet the necessary conditions to participate in next month's elections even after the CEC had asked it to do so.
The Election Commission did not certify it the day before after finding that it had not met the legal criterion for the required number of signatures of at least 1.000.
The "Together We Win" list included candidates from six Serbian opposition political entities in Kosovo: the Serbian People's Movement, the Alliance of Kosovo, the New Face and Serbian Democracy, as well as the civic initiatives North for All and Roots.
The ECAP stated that the commission had found that this list had submitted 1.087 supporting signatures, but for 576 of them the phone numbers were missing, while 80 people from the signature list were not reachable at the numbers provided. According to it, some had even stated that they had not signed in person.
The CEC did not finally certify the "Together We Win" list even after asking it to complete the list of signatures, saying it had failed to submit it within the required deadline.
The "Together We Win" list may appeal the ECAP's decision to the Supreme Court of Kosovo.
Extra-parliamentary political entities are required to submit at least 1000 supporting signatures to participate in the elections.
The "Together We Win" list claims that this is a "precedent", as providing the phone numbers of all signatories has not been an obligation in previous electoral processes.
She also claims to have submitted around 1.400 signatures, more than the legal requirement.REL
