The Serb List – the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo – announced on Sunday that it will not participate in a vote to dismiss the Albanian mayors of the four municipalities with a Serb majority in northern Kosovo, scheduled for April 21.
“The stance of the Serb List is not to participate in the referendum called by Albin Kurti [the Prime Minister of Kosovo], because he did everything for it to fail,” said the head of the Serb List, Zlatan Elek, on Sunday in a press conference in North Mitrovica.
He said that “unfeasible procedures” have been set for the voting on April 21 and that the voter lists “do not reflect the real situation on the ground”, and that the number of Albanians on the voter lists “has increased”.
“In two months in all municipalities, the number of voters has increased disproportionately, by 433 percent,” said the head of the Serb List.
Elek provided no evidence for his claims of an increase in the voter list rate.
The Central Election Commission of Kosovo decided to hold the vote on April 21, after verifying the signatures of citizens on the petitions to dismiss the mayors of the municipalities with Serb majority in northern Kosovo – North Mitrovica, Leposaviç, Zveçan, and Zubin Potok.
The signatures were collected in mid-January in line with an administrative instruction issued by the Government of Kosovo, aiming to pave the way for the announcement of early elections in the northern municipalities, because the local Serb population has not accepted the Albanian mayors.
According to the instruction, approved last September, for this vote to be successful, it needs 50 percent plus one vote of eligible voters.
Afterwards, the result is sent to the President of Kosovo, who has a legal deadline of 30 to 45 days to announce the holding of early elections.
The Albanian mayors were elected in April 2023 elections, which were boycotted by the Serbs as a sign of dissatisfaction with the policies of the Government of Kosovo.
The start of their term sparked tensions in late May last year, culminating in Zveçan, as Serbian protesters clashed with NATO’s peacekeeping mission members in Kosovo, KFOR.
The international community had called for the de-escalation of tensions and the announcement of new elections in the four municipalities in northern Kosovo.
The petition was also signed by representatives of the Serb List, a party that boycotted the April 2023 elections.
This party had initiated the withdrawal of Serbs from Kosovo’s institutions in November 2022 and had subsequently called for the boycott of last year’s April elections.
However, in mid-October 2023, it stated that it was ready to participate in the elections in the northern municipalities, without setting any conditions for participation in the elections, as it had done earlier.
