Boycott of elections by Serbs/ Osmani: Vucic broke his word

2024-04-21 20:56:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Boycott of elections by Serbs/ Osmani: Vucic broke his word

The President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani

The President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, has considered the boycott of the voting process by local Serbs in the four municipalities with a Serbian majority in the north of Kosovo as a disaster, and according to her, thus "Serbia committed illegal interference in an election process of another country ".

"Once again, [Serbian President Aleksandar] Vu?i? violated the word he had given to international partners."

She made these statements while commenting on the election process of April 21, in which it was voted whether the four Albanian mayors in North Mitrovica, Zveçan, Leposaviç and Zubin Potok, should be impeached.

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has said that the initiative has failed since 253 of the 46,556 citizens who had the right to vote voted in this process.

For the process to be successful, 50 percent plus 1 voter would have to vote.

This means that the current presidents will continue their mandates.

Osmani thanked the CEC and other institutions for organizing the elections, and said that with this process, Kosovo has fulfilled all the requirements from the EU, therefore he called on the European bloc to remove all measures towards Kosovo.

The EU imposed punitive measures against Kosovo, on the grounds that it did not do enough to improve the situation in the north of Kosovo, in May 2023.

Then, the local Serbs protested against the new mayors in front of the municipal buildings in Leposavic, Zveçan and Zubin Potok, and as a result the situation escalated into violence.

Several members of the NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, have been seriously injured.

Protesters were also injured.

The initiative for the removal or not of the mayors was organized, as the international factor demanded the removal of the Albanian mayors from their positions, considering that although the process of April last year - when they won the elections - was legitimate, however, it it did not reflect the will of the citizens.

The April 2023 elections were organized after the resignations of the Serbs from the institutions of Kosovo.

Even in those elections, Lista Serbe, the main party of Serbs in Kosovo, boycotted the election process and called on local Serbs to do the same.

The European bloc has expressed regret for the decision of the Serbian List not to participate in the April 21 elections, even though it had previously declared positively for them./ REL