Hovenier denies US giving support to election process in four northern municipalities

In this local election, there was an extremely large boycott by Serbs. The Serbian List also did not participate in this election process.

“will contest your position that we have given support to this process. The decision was made by the Kosovo government”, Hovenier said at RTV 21, when asked by the journalist why he gave support to an election process that had problems with legitimacy, but not also legitimacy.

He also said he disagrees that the US provided support for the process. Hovenier said they have already given advice to Kosovo authorities on holding elections.

I disagree. I don't really agree. What we said is that we do not oppose the Government of Kosovo to fulfill the legal responsibility. I'm going back to the first point, why were the elections held? There were elections because four mayors resigned. Perhaps you know better than I do what the law in Kosovo envisions, but in most of the democracies when an elected official resigns a legal process to replace them”, the US diplomat added.

“We gave advice to Kosovo authorities on this. But I can't say we supported this. What we do is we express our understanding of how to proceed. And we clearly do not discourage Kosovo authorities from working in accordance with their” law.