Edona Peci BIRN Pristina
The Serbian government-backed list “Srpska” won most votes in three Serb-dominated municipalities in local elections in northern Kosovo.
Candidates of the Serbian government list “Srpska” gained most support from the 7,856 voters who cast ballots in Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok in local elections on November 3.
The Kosovo Central Election Commission, CEC, published the official results for 37 municipalities on Thursday.
Candidates of “Srpska” will thus become mayor in the three mainly Serbian municipalities despite an aggressive campaign by Serbian hardliners, who called for a boycott of the vote.
Dragan Jablanovic from “Srpska” won 51.48 per cent of 4,322 ballots cast in Leposavic.
In Zubin Potok, its candidate, Stevan Vulovic, won 78.74 per cent of 2,700 votes.
Vucina Jankovic defeated Nebojsa Vlajic from “Srbija, demokratija, pravda” established by Oliver Ivanovic, a former official in the Serbian ministry for Kosovo. Jankovic was elected mayor of Zvecan after winning 57.55 per cent of 834 votes cast.
The mayors are the first to be elected in polls organized by the Kosovo government in the Serb-run north, where Serbia has remained the de facto power since the end of the Kosovo conflict in the late 1990s.
The results do not include information from the northern half of the divided town of Mitrovica, where the results were annulled following attacks on polling stations. A re-vote is due there on Sunday.
The result of the process in the north is considered a key element for implementing the EU-brokered deal on normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
It is also a pre-condition for the formation of the Association of Serbian Municipalities, the autonomous body foreseen in the deal.
The results for the remaining 34 municipalities do not differ from the preliminary results that the CEC published two days after the elections.
On December 1, there will be a second round of run-off votes in 24 of the 38 municipalities.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, won outright in four municipalities, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, in three, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo in one; an independent candidate was elected mayor of Han i Elezit, while an ethnic Turkish party won in Mamusha. balkaninsight