Cultural heritage that is passed down from generation to generation is tradition. Collective voting of members and supporters of the Serbian List for elections in Kosovo happens years ago. So it became a kind of "tradition". It is known - shortly after the opening of polling stations Mitrovica are on the promenade.
This year, for the local elections, the citizens of Mitrovica went in two columns for collective voting. One was led by the president of the Serbian List and acting director of the Clinical Hospital Center Kosovska Mitrovica Dr. Zlatan Elek, while the second column was led by their candidate for mayor of North Mitrovica, Milan Radojević.
Citizens waited in peace and went to vote. Because of the crowd, that vote took longer, while there was no crowd during the rest of the day. The total turnout at the end of the election day in North Mitrovica was 45,84 percent.
After the Serbian List, candidates for mayors and mayoresses voted: Katarina Ađančić (independent candidate), Marko Jakšić (Civil Initiative "North for All"), current mayor Erden Atić (Self-Determination Movement) and others.
South Mitrovica
During the election day, the "Vremena" reporter also visited a polling station in South Mitrovica. Citizens were generally not in the mood to talk. He learned from his colleagues that the election day passed regularly, and that there were no significant differences compared to the parliamentary elections in February of the same year.
When asked what they expect from the elections, a couple of Albanian neighbors said - "nothing".
Dušan Radaković, coordinator for four municipalities in the north of Democracy in Action, an organization that followed the elections for "Vreme", says that surprisingly, the turnout was very low in Albanian areas. "The average turnout in Albanian areas was somewhere around 30 percent, while in Serbian areas it was 50 percent," says Radaković.
He adds that everything went well in the Albanian communities and that according to the current information, PDK candidate Arijan Tahiri won in South Mitrovica.
"Everyone favored the candidate for mayor of the Self-Determination Movement, Fatom Peci, who will have over 70 percent. According to the current results, he doesn't even have 40 percent," Radaković pointed out.
Election irregularities?
Radaković emphasizes that there was generally a good turnout in the municipalities in the north. "Perhaps even better than on February 9, especially in Zvečan and Zubin Potok."
At the end of the election day, according to CEC data, 59,75 voters voted in Zvečan, 58,83 percent in Zubin Potok, and 27,81 percent in Leposavic.
Regarding election irregularities, Radaković explains that there were various arrests due to "some material in the car", but that in general there were no criminal responsibilities.
"The process was closed at 19 p.m. without any major irregularities. The two biggest ones were that people's polling stations were changed. So there were people who were transferred from the northern part of Mitrovica to vote in Istok, in Vučitrn, in Kamenica, in South Mitrovica, that they transferred people from Zvečan to vote in Mitrovica or from Leposavic to vote in Zvečan," indicated our interlocutor.
He emphasizes that the polling stations for those citizens were changed to municipalities with which they never had any connection. And why this is so, no one has explained to the citizens.
In addition, he says that on Thursday, the CEC requested help from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo due to the lack of people in the polling committees, which, Radaković assesses, is disastrous.
"We had a situation where there were 13 members of the MUP in the municipality of Leposavic who were without uniform, and according to the law, no member of the MUP can be in election committees without a uniform," explains the interlocutor of "Vremena".
Nevertheless, concludes Radaković, the process generally went perhaps a little better than on February 9 this year (in the parliamentary elections).
What do citizens hope for?
The citizens of North Mitrovica, speaking to journalists, said out loud that they expect the replacement of the Albanian mayors, who came to those positions with the minimum number of votes. However, beyond that, they do not expect anything significant to change.
These are the first local elections after the exit of the Serbian List from the Kosovo institutions. That was in November 2022, and then the Serbian List called on the Serbs who work in them to also leave them until the demands are fulfilled. And these are the formation of the Association of Serbian Municipalities and the withdrawal of the Kosovo authorities' decision on the re-registration of vehicles.
To date, not a single request of the Serbian List has been fulfilled. However, the members of the Serbian List say: "A living man makes mistakes", and that their final decision is that they "made a mistake".
Serbs from Kosovo paid dearly for that mistake in the previous three years. Tectonic changes took place in the north of Kosovo. Almost all Serbian institutions were closed. Education and healthcare still function according to the Serbian system. While Serbs are constantly leaving Kosovo.
Nevertheless, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić hopes that the Serbian List will win, and that "they will be able to return part of the government to their own hands."
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