Exactly 26 years ago, on September 27, 1991, the press of the time, the resistance newspaper "Bujku", the only Albanian daily published in Kosovo at that time, wrote in the headline on the front page: "Kosova started the Referendum for Sovereignty".
The main article stated: "The Republic of Kosovo started the referendum on its future: Sovereign and Independent State." Kosovo's first historic referendum of the expression of the free political will of the people began in very difficult conditions and circumstances that Kosovo is experiencing under the Serbian police power, therefore the vote for sovereignty and independence is also a vote for the democratic and peaceful declaration of freedom and equality complete for what the Albanians in Kosovo and Yugoslavia even before this referendum have strongly declared with many forms of expression and manifestation of free will.
As is known from the Central Commission for the implementation and follow-up of the referendum in Kosovo and from the commissions in the municipalities and as reported by our reporters and correspondents from the field, everywhere there is enthusiasm and readiness for this democratic self-determination of the fate and future of the people of Kosovo. recalls Behlul Jashari, the editor-in-chief of "Bujku" at that time.
Under the main photo of the front page of the newspaper it was written: "Democratic declaration for the future of Kosovo: view of Pristina". There, on the front page, in a headline it said "Instructions for holding the Referendum", and in the headline it was emphasized "The Referendum is legal and legitimate".
26 years ago, in the Referendum for Kosovo as a sovereign and independent state held from September 26 to 30, 1991, Kosovars voted in favor of 99,87 percent, with massive participation of 87,01% of 1.051.357 citizens with the right to vote.
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After the holding of the referendum, the newspaper "Bujku" in the issue of October 4, 1991 on the front page with the headline "Over 99 percent of voters for the state sovereignty of Kosovo", with the headline "Report of the Central Commission for the Implementation of the Referendum of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo" ” and with the subtitle “Out of more than 1 million voters, over 870 thousand people or about 85 percent of the total number of citizens with the right to vote have gone to the polls. The participation of Serbs and Montenegrins in the referendum was symbolic," he wrote:
"Until 3.10.1991, the Central Committee of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo for the implementation of the referendum for the Republic of Kosovo, a sovereign and independent state, received the results of the votes from all the municipalities of Kosovo, as well as from several countries of Western Europe, from USA, Australia and others. The voting results of Kosovo citizens who work temporarily in several other republics in Yugoslavia, as well as from some Western European countries, have not yet arrived, and it is assumed that it is a large number of voters.
From the processing of the results of the ballots that have been reached, it can be concluded that in the Referendum, out of more than 1 million voters, more than 870.000 voters, or close to 85 percent of the total number of citizens with the right to vote, have turned out. 99,8% of voters declared that Kosovo is a sovereign and independent state.
The voting results made it possible to ascertain that a significant number of Muslims, Turks, Croats, Roma and others took part in the Referendum, while the participation of Serbs and Montenegrins was symbolic.
The Central Commission for the implementation of the Referendum asks all the commissions, which have not yet submitted the voting results, to do so as soon as possible, in order to announce the final results of the Referendum, it is stated in the statement of the Central Commission for implementation of the referendum of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo".
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The "Bujku" newspaper, which wrote like this, was "both a newspaper and a television", as we used to say during the days of the referendum, since in the information field when Prishtina Television was occupied, in order to "compensate" for the lack of television, we also published many large photographs from the votes and the atmosphere. And the whole newspaper was a referendum, with extensive reports and photographs of teams of journalists and correspondents from all over Kosovo who worked day and night and with sacrifices, all pages of the newspaper being day events, removing the columns and other pages of regular publications.
The only daily Albanian newspaper in Kosovo at that time, "Bujku", was published on January 18, 1991, after the traditional Kosovar newspaper "Rilindja" was forcibly banned and closed by the occupying regime of Serbia.
