by Jelena Tasic
Representatives of the DOS in Kosovo and Metohija had their observers everywhere where that was possible in the Province and have election protocols from all the voting precincts where the voting actually took place, as well as photographs of "phantom" polling stations, in which the leftist coalition won, although those stations were never opened for voting.
"In Pec, where 10,000 ethnic Albanian votes were stolen, they claim to have received about 4,500 votes only in the voting precinct number 1, in the Pec Patriarchate monastery. That would mean that the most extremist Albanians from the Rugova Gorge voted for Milosevic. In order to enter the monastery, which is under protection of the Italian KFOR forces, all of them had to obtain special permits from the international military forces. Our member of the election board in that precinct, Milan Markovic, and our observers Ljilja Perucic and Biljana Simovic, who were there between seven in the morning and four in the afternoon, claim that there was no voting in this precinct and that no election material had been sent there. That can be confirmed by the nuns from the Pec Patriarchate, abbot Petar Ulemek, and priest Miljko," stated Jaksic.
According to him, the voting precinct number 2 in Pec was also never opened. Besides the DOS observer, no one showed up there, not even the other members of the precinct election board, although according to the data of the Federal Election Commission, the coalition SPS-JUL won decisively in that precinct. According to the election protocol sent to the DOS, signed by the representatives of the SRS, about 50 people voted in the precinct 3 in Pec, while the SPS election protocol claims that 1,000 voters cast their ballots there, and all of them, of course, for Slobodan Milosevic. Original election protocols were later torn up.
"In the voting precinct 7 (Milovac, Pocesce, Babice and Glavica), where Momcilo Djurovic was appointed the president of the precinct election board, no ballots were cast, but according to Milomir Srbljak, the DOS representative in the precinct election board, the election protocol was falsified and 1,500 votes given to Milosevic."
Jaksic blames Maki Savic, son of Goroljub Savic, the president of the precinct election board in whose house in the village of Slatina the polling station was located, for fraud in Vucitrn in the precinct number 3. In this precinct, where Slobodan Milosevic "received" about 2,000 votes, only 17 voters cast their ballots according to the data available to the DOS. Vladimir Milentijevic, the president of the municipal board of the DSS in Zubin Potok, has photographs of polling stations in the Srbica Municipality that were never opened for voting and where a convincing victory of the SPS-JUL was also recorded. According to the people from the DOS, Milosevic received more than 1,000 votes (1093) in Srbica thanks to Slavica Jeretic, the mayor of Srbica in exile.
"She participated in election fraud for the SPS in the 1996 elections as well, and the chief organizer of the whole operation was Mile Bozovic, the secretary of the Municipal Court in Kosovska Mitrovica, who organized the stoning of Vojislav Kostunica at an election rally in the northern Mitrovica. We have a videotape showing that," said Marko Jaksic.
Jaksic controlled the elections in Prizren on behalf of the DOS. He claims that in this municipality the elections were held only in the village of Musnikovo where 102 voters cast their ballots. This was confirmed by the OSCE, whose observers followed the voting process. The FEC claims that in voting precincts Prizren 10, 13, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29 (purely Albanian) 30,779 voters cast their ballots and 30,631 voted for Slobodan Milosevic.
"According to election protocols signed by the representatives of the DOS and SRS Musnikovo was the only polling station where voting took place. Polling stations in Mamusa, Dusanovo, the Yugoslav Army Hall in Prizren, Vlasnja, Zjum, Ljubizdra... were not opened. We have photographs confirming this. Representatives of the escort provided by the German KFOR and UNMiK Police forbade us to photograph the Yugoslav Army Hall in Prizren, which currently houses the headquarters of the Kosovo Protection Corps. Even they are afraid to photograph that location. It is unsafe. The names of people who allegedly voted as well as the Albanian names of the members of the precinct election board were simply fabricated. These people do not exist, although members of the Democratic Reform Party of Albanians [pro-Yugoslav ethnic Albanian party] are also mentioned in the decisions about the appointment of members of precinct election boards in Prizren. Besides, election material arrived in Prizren with a two-day delay. A day before the elections there was no election material in any of the polling stations, which can be confirmed by the local priest," Jaksic explained.
He claimed that in Prizren where the election struggle between Thaci's and Rugova's supporters is in full swing, there is so much tension that there is no chance that the remaining Serbs could vote.
According to the DOS data, in the Podujevo Municipality the Socialists stole more than 2,000 ethnic Albanian votes, and many irregularities were recorded in those polling stations that were opened for voting. "These are only the most drastic examples of electoral fraud in Kosovo and Metohija, within the electoral district 24 - Prokuplje. Most of the complaints against the decision about the results of the presidential election, submitted on behalf of the elected president Vojislav Kostunica to the FEC have to do with the voting precincts in this electoral district," claimed the DSS representatives in Kosovska Mitrovica.