Tuesday

5th Dec 2023

Violence fails to stop first ever Kosovo-wide election

  • OSCE monitors were opted to evacuate after the attack (Photo: jonworth-eu)

Turnout in local elections in Kosovo was up to 22 percent in ethnic Serb areas and 60 percent overall, despite intimidation and violence by Serb hardliners.

The vote on Sunday (3 November) was the first ever Kosovo-wide poll held since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

It was also a test of EU attempts to normalise relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Three ethnic Serb municipalities in north Kosovo - Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Zvecan - have for the past five years been ruled by Serb-funded de facto structures, paramilitary groups and criminal gangs.

But in April, Serbia agreed they should elect new local rulers who would fall under Pristina's central authority.

With Serbia keen to show the EU that it merits opening accession talks, the Serbian PM and President at the weekend urged Kosovo Serbs to follow the plan.

But despite the appeal, at around 5pm local time, masked men armed with baseball bats stormed into a polling station at a primary school in a Serb enclave in north Kosovo.

They hit people, reportedly breaking one woman's leg. They also smashed up ballot boxes and threw tear gas canisters. Two similar attacks took place at a technical school and at a medical school in the area at the same time.

The assault prompted the OSCE, a Vienna-based democracy watchdog, to end voting an hour earlier than scheduled and to evacuate its staff.

The attack was the climax of a campaign to sabotage the election by Kosovo Serb hardliners, which began in September with the murder of a Lithuanian policeman serving in the EU's rule of law mission, Eulex.

Ahead of the vote, on Saturday, Krstimir Pantic, a north Kosovo mayoral candidate, was beaten up outside his home.

Pro-boycott groups - with names such as the Chetnicks of Valjevo, DSS, Dveri and Obraz - also threatened people in the street and sent men to polling stations to film and photograph "traitors."

The baseball bat attack drew widespread condemnation.

"These destructive acts of hooliganism have no place in civilized and democratic societies and their perpetrators must be urgently held to account," Farid Zarif, a UN envoy to Kosovo, said on Sunday.

"Rule by thugs must never be accepted," Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt tweeted on Monday morning.

But for his part, the OSCE mission chief, Claude Schlumberger, told press on Sunday the vote was a "success."

He noted that despite the boycott campaign, the Leposavic and Zubin Potok municipalities recorded a turnout of 22 percent, while Zvecan recorded 11.2 percent.

The boycott campaign was not entirely ineffective.

According to Kosovo's Central Election Commission (CEC), turnout among the 50,000 or so ethnic Serbs who live in the north was just 13 percent.

But the CEC noted that turnout in Kosovo's 33 other municipalities was around 60 percent.

By comparison, turnout in UK local elections in May this year was 31 percent. Turnout in the first round of French local elections in October was 33 percent.

"Overall evaluation of local elections in Kosovo: free, fair and progressive. More work to be done in north, but elsewhere Serbs voted well," Kosovo deputy foreign minister, Petrit Selimi, tweeted on Monday.

Ashton clinches Kosovo-Serbia deal

Serbia is to get a date for EU entry talks, Kosovo is to get control over its north and EU foreign policy chief Ashton got kudos after a breakthrough in talks.

Afghanistan is a 'forever emergency,' says UN head

Afghanistan is a "forever emergency" rendered worse by an isolated country intent on dismantling human rights, says UN refugee agency (UNHCR) representative for the country, Leonard Zulu.

Latest News

  1. EU nears deal to fingerprint six year-old asylum seekers
  2. Orbán's Ukraine-veto threat escalates ahead of EU summit
  3. Can Green Deal survive the 2024 European election?
  4. Protecting workers' rights throughout the AI revolution
  5. Russia, the West, and the geopolitical 'touch-move rule'
  6. Afghanistan is a 'forever emergency,' says UN head
  7. EU public procurement reform 'ineffective', find auditors
  8. COP28 warned over-relying on carbon capture costs €27 trillion

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us