Kosovo Serbs protest to get votes in Serbia’s April election

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Hundreds of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo have staged protests to pressure the government into allowing them to vote in neighboring Serbia’s April 3 general election. Demonstrators gathered in Mitrovica with antigovernment banners and marched to a bridge that divides the city. Most of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb population lives north of Mitrovica, close to Serbia’s border. Hundreds of people also protested in a commune not far from Kosovo’s capital, Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said Kosovo and Serbia need to have a preliminary agreement to permit the voting. In previous Serbian elections, ethnic Serbs in Kosovo voted there under monitoring by international observers. That didn’t happen when Serbia held a referendum earlier this year.