Albanians in the Valley to run with a joint list in Serbia, Hyseni: The vote must be turned into concrete representation

Albanian political entities from Preševo, Bujanoc and Medvegjë have agreed to run together in Serbia’s early parliamentary elections through the “Albanian Coalition” list. Voting for the Serbian Parliament is scheduled for October 25, a date confirmed by the Republic Electoral Commission.

The agreement was announced on Tuesday by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, following a meeting in Pristina with representatives of the Albanian political entities. He welcomed the cooperation between the parties, despite their differences, but stressed that political unity must be accompanied by more equal institutional treatment for the Albanians of the Valley.

Kurti compared this with the representation of Serbs in Kosovo, who are guaranteed 10 of the 120 seats in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. According to him, on this basis, the Albanians of Preševo, Bujanoc and Medvegjë should have at least five guaranteed seats in the Serbian Parliament.

For Nehat Hyseni, an analyst from Preševo, the October 25, 2026 elections are important beyond the ranking of the parties and the number of votes. In a statement to “Bota sot,” he said the main test is whether citizens’ support will be transformed into institutional representation and clear protection of the political interests of Albanians.

According to Hyseni, the result at the ballot box is only the first step. He considers that the political significance of the vote will be determined by how a potential Albanian mandate is used after the elections to address the community’s problems.

The analyst recalls the experience of 2022, when the effort to secure an Albanian mandate was accompanied by repeat voting in Tërnoc i Madh and a contested process. In his view, this experience shows how important coordination between Albanian political entities is.

Hyseni explains that cooperation does not require giving up pluralism. The parties, he says, may have different programs, criticize one another and compete separately for local power. However, in parliamentary elections, where the aim is representation in the central institution of the state, they must distinguish the party contest from the community’s strategic interest.

In this sense, uniting the Albanian vote does not necessarily mean merging the parties into a single entity. Hyseni says they can maintain their positions while simultaneously building a joint cooperation mechanism for the parliamentary elections.

According to the analyst, an Albanian member of the Serbian Parliament cannot solve the difficulties of Preševo, Bujanoc and Medvegjë alone, but the mandate must not remain symbolic. The representative can bring the Valley’s issues into parliamentary debate, demand accountability from ministries and central institutions, and raise the issue of Albanian representation in the public administration, police, judiciary and other institutions.

Hyseni calls for parliamentary activity to be based on a concrete agenda. The issues he lists include education in the Albanian language, the official use of the language, economic development, public investment, healthcare, infrastructure, security and demographic problems.

According to him, attention must also be paid to the deactivation of addresses and its potential impact on the exercise of the right to vote. For this reason, Hyseni considers it necessary for Albanian entities to monitor the transparency of voter lists and citizens’ real ability to vote.

He notes that the three municipalities do not have the same circumstances. Preševo has a pronounced Albanian majority and a well-established tradition of Albanian political organization; Bujanoc has a more mixed composition and a more complex history of political co-governance; while Medvegjë faces much more difficult demographic and institutional conditions. Despite these differences, all three share an interest in having the Albanian voice represented at the central level of the Republic of Serbia.

After the vote, Hyseni expects the Albanian representative to work with clear priorities and measurable results. He asks what the deputy will demand, how many parliamentary questions they will submit, how often they will bring the Valley before Parliament, which laws they will support or oppose, and from which ministries they will demand accountability. He also considers cooperation with the municipalities and relations with the Albanian National Council important.

According to the analyst, the deputy should be not only the voice of the Valley in Belgrade, but also its institutional representative before European and Euro-Atlantic public opinion. For Hyseni, the elections are a test of the Albanian entities’ ability to cooperate without denying their political differences: they are meaningful if the October 25 vote is used for a common strategy and turned into concrete policy.