MPs, ministers candidates for mayors

The law on general elections in Kosovo does not prohibit their race, but envisions resignations from the preliminary post in case of their choice. On the other hand, political connoisseurs in the country say that their participation in the race is a lack of frameworks by political parties, and at the same time presents a halt to the work of institutions.

About 14 candidates for mayors in Kosovo are currently deputies of the Kosovo Assembly and at least two of them ministers in the Government of Kosovo. This high number, according to political analysts, is considered insufficient political parties' frameworks for participation in local elections. Albert Krasniqi from the Kosovo Democratic Institute told Radio Kosovo that the commitment of the same representatives from the central to the local level shows that political parties have no framework for candidate.

I think this undermines civic representation and is coming mainly as a result of that political parties are not having enough frameworks to compete at the local and central level. That way they try to do some kind of commitment to have the same candidates, same faces on both levels of governance”, he said.

Krasniqi also says that Kosovo has just formed the institutions, and this will hinder the legislature's work:

So it would take all those who have now shown ambition for mayors to resign from the deputy post because they are thus paralyzing the work of the Parliament. So it's not the focus on making laws in the Assembly. It has often led to the failure of the meetings because there has been no sufficient corum from the side of deputies”, he said.

And Valmir Ismaili from Democracy Plus, participating institutional officials in the election campaign, sees the work of institutions as a deadlock:

In addition to budget damage, this affects the efficiency of the work of state institutions where the focus of officials will be to campaign, not to do the jobs that are in charge. And if we keep in mind that Kosovo has only been constitutionalised both Government and Parliament, a major dynamic is required, then the campaign impact will be enormous, and many things will not move forward during this period as long as we have a” campaign, he said.

Contrary to their participation in the campaign, the use of public assets during the campaign has also been banned through an order by Prime Minister Haradinaj, who warns law-based measures in the event of misuse of official property during the campaign in local elections.