A whirlwind of suspicion over petition for dismissal of mayors in northern Kosovo

The different interpretation of the Kosovo Government's administrative instruction on replacing the mayors has once again caused confusion as far as the process of replacing mayors in the four majority Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo has achieved.

From the Ministry of Management of Local Power (MAPL), they say that the signings for the petition for the chairman's dismissal are under way and that the name for this has remained about two weeks.

The group of citizens who, under administrative direction, should collect these signatures says it has not received the documentation needed to start the petition and that no one has announced that there is a deadline for it.

The mayors of the municipal assembly who are supposed to be a kind of mediation between citizens and central power claim to have done their job and that it is now up to citizens to start the petition.

Serbs from northern Kosovo left Kosovo institutions in November 2022, including those in local government. After boycotting the extraordinary elections in April, when Albanians came to the helm of municipalities, the largest Serb party in Kosovo, the Serbian List, announced in mid-October 2023 that it is ready to participate in extraordinary elections in municipalities in northern Kosovo.

Kosovo Central Election Commission (KQZ) announced in mid-December last year that mayors of municipal municipalities, civic groups and initiatives and the Ministry of Management of Kosovo's Local Power have been announced for the up-to-date number of registered voters in these three municipalities.

That step is seen with administrative guidelines, because 20 percent of the signatures from the total number of registered voters should be collected for petition.

This should be a sign that the signing of signatures could begin, but it remains unclear whether, before this step, the Initiator Group was officially registered to start the petition and if it received permission to use a public area or space for this purpose, because the parties present completely different claims.

The process of replacing mayors in northern Mitrovica, Leposaviq, Zvecan and Zubin Potok followed high tensions at the end of May last year when Albanian leaders came to power because Serbs boycotted the elections.

Under international community pressure, in early September 2023, official Pristina drafted one administrative direction allowing the removal of those mayors and the proclamation of new elections.

But now a month and now it's going on “the execution” among actors for replacing the mayors, on mutual charges that the other side is not implementing the administrative directive.

What does the Ministry say?

Local Power Management Minister Elbert Krasniqi said on January 10th that citizens of North Mitrovica, Leposaviqi and Zubina Potok have yet 12 days to gather the signatures needed for the dismissal of Albanian mayors.

That deadline for citizens of the Zvecan municipality is longer for about five days, because requests for the list with the exact number of registered voters have later been submitted to the Central Election Commission. This step is also provided with the guidance and warning that 20 percent of the signatures from the total number of registered voters have been collected in the petition.

Minister Krasniqi also said that on January 9th he has held a meeting with Quint states and EU diplomats over the process of changing Albanian mayors to the north. He stressed that the petition has started in December last year and that the signing collection is continuing.

However, groups of citizens expose this and say they have not started collecting signatures because they did not receive confirmation from the mayor of the Communist Assembly that they were registered as an initiative group, which, according to administrative direction, is the only one who can start a petition.

In this regard, Radio Free Europe contacted the Ministry of Management of Local Power, but received no answers.

We don't know what to do next”

Veselin Radovic, who is part of the Citizens' Initiative Group in Leposaviq, tells Radio Free Europe that it is awaiting a meeting with the mayor of the Communist Assembly for the “reached agreement on interpretation of administrative instruction”.

We have not received the necessary documentation and we ask for an explanation of why this is not being done. Simply, we're not able to apply the petition until we get full documentation”, Radovic says.

On the other hand, Leposaviqi municipality Speaker Gorski Buric claimed he has done his job, that the Initiator Group has given him all necessary documentation and that it is up to him to collect the signatures.

“These belong to find a room and begin the process of collecting signatures”, Buric told Radio Free Europe.

However, Radovic said that the country's definition of starting the petition is “the next” under administrative guidelines and that, above all, it is necessary to officially register as the Initiator Group.

We just don't know what to do next, the next phase is authorisation for the room (to start the petition). We are expecting an invitation (from the mayor of the Communist Assembly) to see how we will proceed, what steps to take”, he stressed.

Radovic voiced confidence that for a successful process of replacing the president, the goodwill of all actors is first needed, but also flexibility in harmonising positions and interpreting administrative guidelines.

A member of the Initiative Group in northern Mitrovica and Zvecan confirmed to Radio Free Europe that it has not started collecting signatures, but did not want to talk more about it, nor did it want their names published.

Allegations of steps to replace the mayor in the north have been present since the beginning of the process, when a group of citizens tried to launch that initiative on December 5th.

Uglanin: No one asked permission for public space to collect signatures

The chairman of the Northern Mitrovica municipality's Assembly, Nexhad Uglan, told Radio Free Europe that a group of citizens has handed the form to them to start a petition on which signatures should be collected and that it is up to them to inform where the signature collection will be made.

As he said, he has not yet received any requests from them to determine the public space where the petition for signing collection would begin.

“I have sent word that they are obliged to inform the North Mitrovica municipality's Assembly, which immediately assigns hearing and authorization (for public space exploitation). If they use a public area, a mall, whether they use a school or any other institution, it depends on them. That's the least of our problems at”, explain Uglan.

Warning of the Initiative Group that it was not officially registered, Uglan said it had to do the Central Election Commission and that it was probably because it was informed of the number of signatures they should collect./Full text: REL