Distraction among citizens following the withdrawal of the Serbian List from the polls in the north: Our Opinion No More

Dejan from Leposaviqi é one of four Serb-run municipalities in northern Kosovo says he is confused by the Serbian List's announcement that he will not participate in the polls for replacing Albanian mayors, scheduled for April 21st.

Our “Opinion no longer exists. Can I do something in my life and not ask the authorities? I would go out [to vote for the chairman's dismissal]”, Dejan says about Radio Free Europe.

The Serbian List, the largest Serb party in Kosovo, announced suddenly 7 April that its supporters will not participate in the polls to replace Albanian mayors: Northern Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposaviq.

This message came after, in mid-January, this party, which has the backing of official Belgrade, urged citizens to sign a petition for the dismissal of the mayors of these municipalities.

Albanian leaders took power there, after the Serbian List called on citizens to boycott the April 2023 elections, which were organised after the Serb departure from Kosovo institutions in November 2022, even at the Serbian List initiative.

I don't give a shit about the Serbian List. It changes five opinions within five days. Initially, they call for voting, then boycott the vote [for the dismissal of mayors]”, says Marina from North Mitrovica.

She believes that citizens from the ranks of the Serb community in northern municipalities must go out to vote for the dismissal of current mayors on April 21st, regardless of the political parties' positions or calls.

Zlatko and Pero from North Mitrovica, following the Serbian List's message that it will not participate in the election process, have not decided yet whether to vote.

“I don't know what's going on, I don't have it clear”, Zlatko says.

For me it's confusing... first, the question was whether we're going to the elections, are we going to boycott... then if we stay in the institutions of Kosovo or leave them and then petition. I have no answer”, says Pero.

petition organisers are not declared

Zoran from Leposaviqi is also confused by the Serbian List's statement that he will not participate in the process of replacing Albanian mayors of majority Serb municipalities.

We started it with optimism with that petition... Now that the people are prepared to go to the polls, something happens”, Zoran says.

The petition for the dismissal of mayors in the north was initiated on the basis of an administrative directive, which the Government of Kosovo prepared in September last year, following international community pressure to organise new elections in the north.

On the basis of that instruction, citizens' signatures were collected by an initial group, composed of several citizens, in each of the four municipalities in northern Kosovo.

Members of these groups claimed earlier that they were organised with their own initiative and that they do not relate to any political party.

Radio Free Europe attempted on April 8th to contact members of the initiative groups to respond if they would continue to invite citizens to participate in the process of replacing the mayors.

However, most of them did not answer the phone, while some said briefly that they did not give statements.

For the vote to replace the mayors on April 21st to succeed, it would take 50 per cent plus one per cent of citizens' vote from the total number registered on the election list.

After that, the result would be sent to Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, who has a legal deadline of 30 to 45 days to announce early elections.

Charge against Kosovo government

On April 7th, the Serbian List, announcing it is stepping down from the process of replacing mayors in northern municipalities, said the planned procedures are <x0 possible” and that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, “has done everything for the vote to fail”.

Serbian List Chairman Zlatko Ellek said at a media conference in Northern Mitrovica that, according to official data, in northern Kosovo there are about 46 thousand eligible voters, but that the situation on the ground has changed because in recent months, according to him, about 15 per cent of Serbs have been displaced.

In this way, he hinted that the April 21st vote cannot be successful, because it is necessary that 50 per cent plus one of the total numbers of registered election lists vote for the mayors' dismissal.

Currently, the population registration process is under way in Kosovo, but the Serbian List announced earlier that it will not participate.

The last census in 2011 was not held in northern Kosovo, while Serbs south of Ibri were mostly boycotted at the request of official Belgrade.

At the same press conference, Ellek said the number of Albanians rightly votes in municipalities in the north is growing.

The REL asked the Serbian List to provide evidence for these claims, taking into account that they were not presented at the media conference, but received no answers.

Meanwhile, the Kosovo government called on the Serbian List, which, as it said, should not spread disinformation and pressure the citizens of the Serb community in northern Kosovo “who want to be part of the democratic process of April 21st”.

In a response sent to Radio Free Europe, the Government dismissed the claim that the April 21st “process is the referendum called by Prime Minister Kurti”.

“It is the result of demand and signatures collected by citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, residents of these four municipalities. The administrative guidance that envisions the possibility of leaving mayors, respects the political will of citizens”, was said in the government's response.

Kosovo's executive called on citizens in municipalities in the north to seize their opportunity and their right to vote for or against the departure of four Albanian mayors.

Bisevac: Serbian List's hypocritical stand

Milija Bisevac of Zubin Potoku, leader of the newly formed Serbian People's Movement ʹ the newly formed party of Kosovo Serbs, said in a statement to Radio Free Europe that the Serbian List “has humiliated citizens”, because it has first supported the dismissal of mayors based on petition and voting, but that it has now withdrawn from the whole process.

This is the hypocritical attitude of the Serbian List and I think that, as a serious political party, it had to predict all of this. This is now a confusing” statement, Bisevac believes, and adds that his party has not supported the dismissal of mayors based on the Kosovo Government's Administrative Guide.

Bisevac, also, says many Serbs have been displaced from the north of Kosovo and that it has been clear since the beginning that the voting process cannot succeed. He adds that, now, that process is “prone to failure”.

The “is a non-serious approach of the Serbian List and of Belgrade official towards politics. The people are disappointed, they have lost their will and, therefore, a growing number of our citizens are leaving this area”, Bisevac says.

Marinkovic: Serbian List Has Lost Voters

Miodrag Marinkovic, from the nongovernmental organisation Centre for Affirmative Social Action in northern Kosovo, estimates that the Serbian List, over the past year, has made a series of wrong moves and, as a result, has lost the support of a portion of citizens.

For this reason, according to him, it has also withdrawn from the voting process for the dismissal of Albanian mayors.

“I am sure that the Serbian List and the logistical machinery of the Serbian Progressive Party [the ruling party in Serbia] can enable a number of voters to come from Serbia and participate in these polls. But I'm not sure this is the focus of the Serbian Progressive Party now, because it is dealing with local elections in Serbia”, Marinkovic says.

He considers that the Serbian List's recent decision is wrong because replacing Albanian mayors in northern municipalities would ensure stabilisation of the situation, according to him.

The decision they made, it's not clear to me either, and I believe it's not clear to the residents, says Marinkovic.

Central Election Commission spokesman in northern Kosovo Valmir Elezi told Radio Free Europe, meanwhile, that this institution has accepted the resignations of four members of the Serbian Election Commissions in Leposaviq, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and North Mitrovica.

Marinkovic says the voting process for the dismissal of Albanian leaders, with the withdrawal of the Serbian List, will certainly not be postponed, but may be unsuccessful.

According to the Government of Kosovo Administrative Guide, if the vote to replace the mayors is unsuccessful, the next initiative could be organised 12 months from the day it is found that the past has been unsuccessful.