Newsroom
Out-of-Kosovo voter registration for Kosovo elections gets go-ahead
PRISTINA 16 July 2001
PRISTINA, 16 July 2001 (OSCE) - The OSCE Mission in Kosovo welcomes the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that will allow the start of voter registration for the November Kosovo elections in Serbia proper.
The Memorandum was signed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Commissariat for Refugees in Serbia proper. A second such Memorandum is due to be signed with the Commissariat for Refugees in Montenegro later this week.
These technical documents mean that in-person registration can start in Serbia and Montenegro on 30 July.
Registration outside Kosovo's boundaries is being implemented by the IOM. In Serbia and Montenegro, where people will be able to register in-person, this is being done with the assistance of each region's Commissariat.
But the international staff who will be carrying out the registration are employed and trained by the OSCE.
An estimated 190,000 people from Kosovo are believed to be living in Serbia proper, with a further 30,000 in Montenegro. These include Serbs, Bosniacs, Roma, Albanians and Turks.
To be eligible to register to vote, people must meet the same civil registration criteria as people living in Kosovo. That includes to be born in Kosovo, or having one parent born in the province, or having lived there for five consecutive years. People must also show that they left Kosovo on or after 1 January 1998 or that they were recognized as a convention status refugee on or after 1 January 1995. People registering must also be 18 or older by Election Day.
The registration process, running for six weeks in about 100 centres, will be monitored by both international personnel and local teams to ensure that it is carried out properly and is free of fraud. The Council of Europe is organizing the international component of the observation.
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For more information please contact Claire Trevena, Spokesperson, OSCE Mission in Kosovo, tel.: (+381-38) 500-162 ext. 260, mobile: +377 (044) 500-150, e-mail: press@omik.org, website: www.osce.org/kosovo.
The Memorandum was signed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Commissariat for Refugees in Serbia proper. A second such Memorandum is due to be signed with the Commissariat for Refugees in Montenegro later this week.
These technical documents mean that in-person registration can start in Serbia and Montenegro on 30 July.
Registration outside Kosovo's boundaries is being implemented by the IOM. In Serbia and Montenegro, where people will be able to register in-person, this is being done with the assistance of each region's Commissariat.
But the international staff who will be carrying out the registration are employed and trained by the OSCE.
An estimated 190,000 people from Kosovo are believed to be living in Serbia proper, with a further 30,000 in Montenegro. These include Serbs, Bosniacs, Roma, Albanians and Turks.
To be eligible to register to vote, people must meet the same civil registration criteria as people living in Kosovo. That includes to be born in Kosovo, or having one parent born in the province, or having lived there for five consecutive years. People must also show that they left Kosovo on or after 1 January 1998 or that they were recognized as a convention status refugee on or after 1 January 1995. People registering must also be 18 or older by Election Day.
The registration process, running for six weeks in about 100 centres, will be monitored by both international personnel and local teams to ensure that it is carried out properly and is free of fraud. The Council of Europe is organizing the international component of the observation.
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For more information please contact Claire Trevena, Spokesperson, OSCE Mission in Kosovo, tel.: (+381-38) 500-162 ext. 260, mobile: +377 (044) 500-150, e-mail: press@omik.org, website: www.osce.org/kosovo.