Albanian parties challenge Serbian List, put together in municipal elections

Skender Sadiku will be the host of the Albanian parties' list of municipal assemblies in local elections, which will be held on 17 October this year.

Florent Azemi from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) in this municipality says that part of the list will also be communities that do not belong to Serbian ethnicity.

Azemi says that there have been more than five months since they started living this union initiative.

We've become together the Vetevendosje Movement, P DK, LDK, AAK, Coalition V AKAT, AKR, civil society, community RAE and we have reserved seats for those Serbs who think differently from a party monopoly that is now in the north”, Azemi says.

He is convinced that united they will be able to defeat the Serbian List.

We are not a block against anyone, we are together for ourselves and to improve the lives of citizens living in the north. We've entered this race to normalize and democratise life north”, Azemi says.

The head of the North Mitrovica municipality is currently Milan Radojevic, who is part of the Serbian List.

The united Albanian parties in northern Mitrovica have applied for certificate at the Central Election Commission (KQZ), dubbed civic initiative Mitrovica.

The CEC has announced that for participation in the 17 October local elections, 94 political subjects have applied -- from them, 32 parties, a coalition, 35 civic initiatives and 26 independent candidates. CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi has announced that the total number of candidates who have applied is 4,920, of them 165 for mayors and 4,757 for municipal municipalities.

Novoberda brought Vetevendosje, PDK together

The Serbian list also leads the Novoberda municipality. The mayor of this municipality for the past four years is Svetislav Ivanovic.

The example of North Mitrovica is being followed by parties in the Novoberda municipality.

The Vetevendosje Movement in Novoberda has announced that it has invited Albanian political parties in this municipality to run with a common list and common candidate against the Serbian List.

So far this invitation has responded positively. PDK.

The head of the Vetevendosje Movement branch in Novoberda, Abdel Gashi, says they are aiming to challenge the Serbian List in the elections.

“Vetevendosje Movement not only in Artana (Novoberda), but also in all other municipalities where the Serbian List government is trying to get together with other Albanian subjects in front of the Serbian List to get as strong as possible in local elections”, Gashi says.

Gashi says it is important for the Serbian List to lose power, as according to him, this party is aimed only at obstructing Kosovo institutions.

That, Gashi says, has been witnessed in all municipalities where this party is government.

“in Kosovo has become an injustice starting with decentralisation, where the Golden Community has been an Albanian majority, even now subsequently the Serbian List mobilised even voters from Serbia to achieve its goal within the state of Kosovo”, Gashi says.

Vetevendosje's invitation has not been answered by the Democratic League of Kosovo, which currently has the position of the Novoberda municipality deputy head.

Free Europe Radio has attempted to receive an answer from this party during Friday, but the same have not commented on the issue.

GAP: Parties have the right to join

Albanian parties' co-operation would give power in Serb majority municipalities, says Bekim Salihu, senior researcher at the GAP Institute and local government connoisseur.

According to him, the practice in the past has proved that being alone in the election has affected the loss of votes and not in factoring Albanian subjects.

I consider that in these cases when dealing with Serb majority municipalities, the reconciliation of Albanian parties for unified is the process that needs to be supported, in the fact that only thus can their influence on local governance increase in these” municipalities, Salihu says.

According to him, the Serbian List collects around itself all Serb parties, which are represented in Serb majority municipalities, and this affects Albanian parties not to garner votes in these municipalities.

The “legally within previous conditions, because political subjects can even unite in certain cases and specific locations, not to melt as the only political subject, but to be represented or reconciled to a certain candidate”, Salihu says.

In the last local elections held in Kosovo four years ago, the Serbian List had won about 50,000 votes.

For four years this party has run in 10 municipalities -- in northern Mitrovica, Leposaviq, Zvecan, Zubin Potok, Klokot, Ranilug, Partesh, Shtrpce, Novoberda and Gracanica.