![\"votat\"](\"http:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/votat.jpg\")
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Parties have started campaigning for Sunday’s run-off polls, which will be held in 25 municipalities, and will test the public mood ahead of next year’s general election.
\nEdona Peci BIRN Pristina
\nThe campaign for Sunday’s run-off elections in 25 of Kosovo’s 38 municipalities started on Monday and will end on Friday at midnight.<\/p>\n
Candidates of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, will run again for the post of mayor in 11 of the municipalities.<\/p>\n
Those of the coalition between the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and the Dardania Democratic League, LDD, are competing in eight.<\/p>\n
Behlul Beqaj, professor of politics, said if the AAK failed to do well in the western town of Djakovica, it might herald the party’s unstoppable decline.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the AKR fails here, its end will start,” he said. “It will also be a knockout blow for the PDK if it loses in Prizren,\u201d he added, noting that the results will test the mood of the voters ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n
Seven candidates of the Serbian Citizen’s Initiative, known as Srpska, are running in mainly Serbian-populated municipalities.<\/p>\n
Dusan Janic, a political analyst, said the Serbian government-backed Srpska list was unlikely to win in more than five.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe victory of the Srpska list is very important for the government in Belgrade, because it consists of people paid out of the Serbian budget,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Serbian government has promised to resolve the problem of Kosovo… they want to prove they achieved something\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
Janjic said Belgrade should not ignore other Serbian parties in Kosovo by backing only the Srpska list, because \u201cit could cause a conflict between the Serbs that are active in Kosovo politics\u201d.<\/p>\n
As in the first round of the Kosovo local elections, held at earlier this month, the run-off will be monitored by thousands of local and international observers.<\/p>\n
The US ambassador to Kosovo, Tracey Jacobson, said she expected the improvements seen in the first round of elections, compared to past polls, to be sustained this time, too.<\/p>\n
“A flawed or fraudulent process on December 1 would render the progress made in November’s first round elections meaningless,” she said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The outcome of the local elections is considered a key element for the EU-brokered deal on normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia.<\/p>\n
It is especially important in the Serb-dominated municipalities, as an autonomous Association of Serbian Municipalities is due to be established once the elections are over.\/balkaninsight\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parties have started campaigning for Sunday’s run-off polls, which will be held in 25 municipalities, and will test the public mood ahead of next year’s general election. Edona Peci BIRN Pristina The campaign for Sunday’s run-off elections in 25 of Kosovo’s 38 municipalities started on Monday and will end on Friday at midnight. Candidates of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-16","tag-kosovo-parties-get-ready-for-run-off-polls"],"views":982,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":525,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}