In the early local elections that were held on Sunday in the 4 municipalities with a Serbian majority in the north of Kosovo, the candidates of the Vetëvendosje Movement won the race for mayor in North Mitrovica and Leposaviq, while those from the Democratic Party of Kosovo won the race for mayor of Zveçan and Zubin Potok.

The parties representing the Kosovo Serb community chose not to participate in the elections. Only one independent candidate from the ranks of the Serbian community competed in them, who managed to get only five votes. Lista Serbe, the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo, did not participate in the elections and called on Serbian citizens to boycott the process. Official Belgrade issued the same calls.

The American embassy in Pristina reacted to the non-participation of the Serbs, which expressed regret for this fact, but also emphasized that voting is an important freedom of democratic societies.

Meanwhile, the vice-president of the Serbian List, Millan Radoicic, said that the Serbian people in Kosovo “will never allow” that the municipalities with a Serbian majority in the north of the country be led by those who won “1 or 2 percent of the votes” in the elections.

But according to the interior minister Xhelal Svecla, the new mayors of the municipalities in the north of Kosovo will not have problems in their work, because, as he said, “the law will be applied throughout the country. In the north, the difficulties are more specific, but there will be no problems”, said Sveçla.

Voter turnout was at low levels, around 3.47 percent according to the central election commission. Out of 45,095 citizens with the right to vote in the four municipalities, 1,567 voted. Meanwhile, the process took place smoothly and without incident.

Early local elections in Zubin Potok, Leposavic, North Mitrovica and Svecan are held after the resignation last November of their local leaders in protest against the Kurti government’s decision to re-register vehicles with license plates that contained acronyms in Serbian of the cities of Kosovo. They were originally scheduled to be held on December 18, 2022, but Kosovo institutions were forced to postpone them because groups of citizens caused incidents during the preparations in the north.

/a.p/