Few votes in the north, Albanians remain in charge of Serb majority municipalities

The boycott of the Serbian List is working. As of the morning, only 203 people in the country's four northern municipalities came out to answer the question whether or not they want the dismissal of the current Albanian mayors.

The vote, which was organized to allow Serbs, a majority in that part of the country, to remove the current mayors, looks set to leave them in office until the end of their term.

A year ago, they became mayors in the north of the country after Belgrade asked Serbs in Kosovo to boycott the April 23, 2023 elections, which resulted in the election of four Albanian mayors - winners with the participation of only 3% of voters. The leadership of Leposavic was taken by The Hetemi from LVV, that of Zubin Potoku Izmir Zeqiri from PDK, the leadership of Zvecan took ilir Pecit from PDK, while Erden Atiq from LVV came to the head of North Mitrovica.

The dominant party in northern Kosovo, Belgrade-controlled Serb List, urged Serbs not to participate in the vote, on the grounds that it was organized in such a way as to enable current mayors to remain in the leadership of these municipalities until the end of their mandate.

To make it possible to remove the current mayors of four northern municipalities and organize new elections in the north, more than 50% of those eligible to vote had to participate. Practically impossible.

The result: by 3pm, of the 46,000 registered, only 203 people voted. According to the latest CEC data, 122 people voted in Leposavic, zubin Potok 17, in North Mitrovica 64, and in Zvecan none.

The 23 electoral centres, however, are staying open from the morning in North Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan.

If the vote were not boycotted, it was thought that it would pave the way for new local elections there, which should contribute to the de-escalation of the situation that after the 2023 local elections escalated to violence.