Serb List has filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court of Kosovo challenging the Supreme Court’s decision confirming the parliamentary mandate won by Nenad Rašić, arguing that the ruling fails to adequately protect the constitutional purpose of reserved seats for the Kosovo Serb community.
The complaint was filed just two days before Kosovo’s constitutive parliamentary session, scheduled for August 6, and comes as the deadline for the formation of the Assembly approaches.
Serb List argues that the representation of the Serbian community should be determined exclusively by votes cast by members of that community. It says the case is not aimed at protecting a particular political party or individual parliamentary mandate, but at defending what it describes as the constitutional right of the Serbian community, as well as other non-majority communities, to authentic political representation.
The party is challenging the decisions of the Central Election Commission (CEC), the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP), and the Supreme Court, claiming that none of the institutions addressed what it considers the central constitutional question: whether the purpose of reserved parliamentary seats for the Serbian community is preserved when representatives are elected with votes from citizens who are not members of that community.
Following the elections, Serb List initially filed a complaint with ECAP and subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court. The party argued that Nenad Rašić’s party, the Serbian Democratic Initiative (ZSPO), received votes in municipalities where, according to Kosovo’s 2024 population census, the Serbian community has little or no presence.
Both appeals were rejected.
The CEC had previously argued that Serb List’s claims did not constitute a legal basis for challenging the validity of votes or the election result. ECAP similarly dismissed the complaint, emphasizing the principles of equal and secret voting and noting that voter lists do not contain information about voters’ ethnicity, as such data could undermine those principles.
In Kosovo’s June elections, Serb List won nine of the ten parliamentary seats reserved for the Serbian community, while Rašić secured the remaining seat.
The Constitutional Court’s consideration of the complaint could add another layer of uncertainty to the formation of Kosovo’s new parliament. The Assembly is due to hold its constitutive session on August 6.
If the Assembly fails to constitute itself by August 7, the constitutional process would move toward the election of a president, for which the Constitution provides a 60-day deadline. If a president cannot be elected within that period, Kosovo would face another parliamentary election.
