Besim Hoti, the Regional Spokesman for the Kosovo Police Service (KPS), said Saturday that police had strengthened its presence in northern Kosovo because of the holding of the Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections there.

Hoti told Tanjug that police had increased the number of police officers in the north, that they were now operating at full capacity and that there would be even more of them near polling places in multiethnic communities on the following day.

In line with its operational plan, the KPS will monitor the distribution of election material from the OSCE warehouse to all polling places tomorrow, he said.

There will be a total of 37 polling stations at 13 locations in the north of Kosovo and the Kosovska Mitrovica region and the KPS will cover all the locations where the OSCE personnel will be in charge of the election procedure, said Hoti. Police will be located in the vicinity of the polling places in order to maintain public order, he added.

The police spokesman said that they were in contact with representatives of EULEX and KFOR, which would provide any kind of support needed in the event of violation of public order or an incident breakout.

Referring to the announcement about holding local elections in the municipalities of Zvecan and Zubin Potok, Hoti said that the OSCE should close all polling places where local elections were planned to be held.

If the holding of local elections happens to pose a threat to the safety of the citizens of Kosovo, the KPS will react, Hoti said.

Zvecan and Zubin Potok are the only municipalities where local elections should be held in addittion to the parliamentary and presidential ones.

Representatives of municipal polling station staffs in the two northern Kosovo municipalities have decided that the local level elections be held in rooms other than those in which people will vote for the future Serbia president and parliamentary deputies due to the possibility of the local elections compromising the process of presidential and parliamentary ones.