The Party for Democratic Action wins the most votes in Presevo, the Front for Change in Bujanoc

2024-06-03 17:15:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Party for Democratic Action wins the most votes in Presevo, the Front for

The Party for Democratic Action, led in Presevo by Ardita Sinani, has won the most mandates in the municipal assembly of Presevo, in the repeated local elections, also held in the south of Serbia - with an Albanian majority - on June 2.

Sinani is an advisor to the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti.

The chairman of the Electoral Commission in Presheva, Alban Mehmeti, told Radio Evropa e Lirë that the party led by Sinan will have 11 seats in the municipal assembly.

The Alternative for Change of Shqiprim Arifi, and the Democratic Party of Albanians, led by Ragmi Mustafa, won eight seats each.

The Movement for Reform of Sami Salihu has won six seats.

The Alliance for the Valley, led by Armend Ali and Ilir Sadri, won three seats.

The Democratic Union of Albanians, led by Naser Azir, won a seat, as did the "Aleksandër Vu?i?-Presheva Nesër" list, linked to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

Before the elections, the municipality of Preševo ??was administered by a Temporary Authority, appointed by the Government of Serbia.

The municipality of Preševo ??has over 33,000 inhabitants and 61,000 of the Albanians registered in Serbia, in the last population census, live there.

There are also Albanians in Bujanoc and Medvegja, two other municipalities in the south of Serbia, inhabited by Albanians.

The three municipalities in that part make up the so-called Presheva Valley.

In the local elections in Bujanoc, the candidate of the Party for Democratic Action, Ragmi Mustafi, advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimit, won the fewest votes of all the Albanian parties that participated in the elections.

The Front for Change won the most votes in that municipality - 19.17 percent - according to the data of the municipal Electoral Commission official, Fejzi Beqiri.

In second place is the Movement for Democratic Progress, with 17.53 percent of the votes.

In the last elections, this movement formed a governing coalition together with the Democratic Party and the Party for Democratic Action.

The Democratic Party won 13.53 percent of the votes, while the Party for Democratic Action, supported by the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Kurti, won 11.59 percent of the votes.

Although Albanian parties have competed with six electoral lists in Preševo ??and four in Bujanoc, Prime Minister Kurti has supported only the candidates of the Party for Democratic Action - Ardita Sinan in Preševo ??and Ragmi Mustafi in Bujanoc, and has called on voters to vote for them. .

In the parliamentary elections of Serbia, held in December last year, Kurti and his party Vetëvendosje supported Shaip Kamberi - the candidate of the Party for Democratic Action, to win a seat in the Assembly of Serbia.

Currently, Kamberi is the only Albanian in that institution.

No minority in Serbia has guaranteed seats in the Assembly, but the passing threshold for them is lower, which enables them to win more easily.

According to population census data, Albanians are the fourth largest minority in Serbia.

In the municipality of Medvegja, the third in the south of Serbia, in terms of the percentage of the Albanian population, the local elections were held on December 17, 2023.

Only two parties participated in the elections, SNS and the Democratic Party for Medvegja.

The SNS won the majority of votes in that municipality and single government./ REL