Two municipalities in Kosovo remain without mayors, pandemic does not allow elections to be held

Without chairmans from Wednesday, northern Mitrovica has remained, as Goran Rakkiq of the Serbian List has been appointed deputy prime minister and local government minister in the new Avdullah Hoti government.

Elections in the Podujevo municipality were scheduled to be held on March 15th, but due to the situation in the country with the spread of the new choreography, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, on March 14th had decided to postpone them.

Under the Constitution that the Republic of Kosovo, the president appoints and proclaims the election date, but so far, no official decision has been made on either of those two municipalities.

Kosovo Vice President Hashim Thaci is consistently forwarding the performance of the situation created with the pandemic and in consultation with the Central Election Commission and health institutions, depending on the circumstances, will make the right decision”, reportedly in a written response from the president's office, sent Radio Free Europe.

At the Central Election Commission, meanwhile, they say they are willing to organise elections whenever they are announced.

Was the pandemic a reason for avoiding general parliamentary elections?

The possible holding of these elections has sparked debate over whether pandemic was the real reason to avoid holding general elections, following the collapse of Kurti Government.

The leader of the Vetevendosje Movement has provided an interview for Radio Free Europe, from which we are distancing its response, on pandemic and inability to hold early elections.

Albin Kurti has said the elections have been frightened by political parties, because most have known that <x0 people would bury”, referring to the possible election outcome.

And these don't want the nail in the coffin called democratic elections. These people are the problem, and the elections are choice”, Kurt said in an interview for Radio Free Europe, which you can read here.

Early parliamentary elections had also called for the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, but they have been strongly rejected by the Democratic League of Kosovo and other smaller parliamentary subjects, citing pandemic as the main reason for their failure.

Democratic League of Kosovo deputy leader Lutfi Haziri in a campaign for Radio Free Europe says that as regards the elections in Podujevo, whenever the CEC decides and state institutions, the LDK is ready.

Haziri, however, says it was not only the pandemic the reason for the opposition to holding general elections.

“is not just the pandemic reason, why we have said it is not the time for elections, but it is the electoral process, which had just been completed. Only four months earlier had the government formed. And Kosovo does not have the comfort that because of instability and political egos organise elections every six months, because of the budgetary cost, even because of many other circumstances”, says Mr. Haziri.

The government Kurti fell month after a successful no-confidence motion in the assembly, initiated by the ruling coalition partner LDK.

To avoid holding new elections in time, the president of the Republic had decreed Avdullah Hoti, by the Democratic League of Kosovo as mandated to form the new government.

The president's decree ended in the Constitutional Court, which eventually gave the green light to the formation of the new government, which was voted in on Wednesday, 3 June.

Pandemia has also prompted some Western Balkan countries to postpone keeping them, especially at a time when the number of coronary cases was on the rise. Among them is North Macedonia, which has not yet set the date for holding them, and Serbia, which is expected to hold local, district and parliamentary elections on 21 June.