Beriša schedules national minority council elections for November 8

Demo Beriša, the Minister for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue in a technical mandate, has called for elections for members of national minority councils to be held on November 8. The elections will involve members of 23 national minorities.

Following the conclusion of provisional voter lists on September 16, it was determined that 21 national minorities meet the requirements for direct elections. These include Albanian, Ashkali, Bosniak, Bulgarian, Bunjevac, Vlach, Greek, Egyptian, Hungarian, Macedonian, German, Polish, Roma, Romanian, Rusyn, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Czech minorities. The Gorani and Russian national minorities will elect their representatives through an electoral assembly.

National minority councils serve as a form of minority self-governance, holding significant authority in areas such as culture, education, information, and the official use of languages and scripts. These regular elections are held every four years.