2024-04-21 04:02:29
The predominantly Serbian towns in northern Kosovo are organizing a referendum on Sunday on the recall of the Albanian mayors who were elected with barely 3% participation a year ago.
The mayors subject to the referendum were elected in April 2023 during municipal elections that were boycotted by Kosovo Serbs – who then took to the streets to prevent the new councilors from exercising their functions.
Several dozen NATO soldiers were injured in these demonstrations, some seriously.
This winter, Kosovo’s largest Serbian party, Srpska lista, managed to collect enough signatures in the municipalities of Zvecan, Mitrovica North, Leposavic and Zubin Potok, all in northern Kosovo, to demand a referendum on their ouster. .
On Sunday, voters will have to answer the question: “For or against the dismissal of the mayors of the municipalities: Leposavic, Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Mitrovica North.”
Polling stations must open at 7:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and close 12 hours later.
If the “instead” side wins, Kosovo’s president, Vjosa Osmani, will call new elections.
– Call for a boycott –
But from a certain victory a few weeks ago, the situation has turned into a political and logistical imbroglio: Serbian officials asked citizens to boycott the vote barely 15 days before the scheduled date.
“It is not our position to participate in the referendum that called [le Premier ministre du Kosovo] Albin Kurti because he did everything to ensure that the vote failed,” explained party leader Zlatan Elek.
“This is an attempt by the Serbian List to take the Serbian community hostage, but it will not fail and the process will not stop,” one of the officials of the Electoral Commission, Alban Krasniqi, denied.
The Commission had to urgently find ways to open polling stations, after 33 schools refused to organize the voting – the Serbian directors of the establishments concerned explained that cultural activities had already been planned every weekend since April.
Relations between Pristina and the Serbian minority in northern Kosovo, supported and partly funded by Belgrade, have been tense ever since, announced in 2008.
In September, the death of a Kosovo policeman and the discovery of a heavily armed commando made up of Serbs again raised fears of a violent escalation. And the recent ban on the Serbian dinars, the currency used in the north, has added pressure to the situation.
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