PRISTINA: President Kosovo Vjosa Osmani has said that her country could hold new elections in Serb-majority municipalities rocked by violent protests if 20 of voters sign a petition in this regard.
In an exclusive interview the Reuters on Wednesday, Osmani said she believed that a petition was the most democratic way to move ahead for the new elections.
“In this way, I think we would ensure the participation of Serbs because the request would have come from them to begin with, from citizens,” Osmani said.
Earlier, violent protests erupted in four northern municipalities after Kosovo installed ethnic Albanian mayors who were elected into offices on a turnout of just 3.5%. The Serbs are in the majority in the area, and they had boycotted the local polls.
The president said removing mayors through a process of petitions by voters would be a kind of referendum that would open the way for a second vote to be held to elect new mayors adding that the entire process could be done within a couple of months. However, its yet to be known if the local Serb voters would participate to sign the petition.
The local Serbs in the northern region of Kosovo do not accept the 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, almost a decade after the end of a war there, and still consider Belgrade as their capital.
As tensions between Kosovo and Serbia re-emerged, NATO reinforced its peacekeeping forces in the north of the country.
President Osmani said she wanted those peacekeeping troops to stay until Kosovo was admitted into the NATO.
She said that before new elections were called, her country would require reassurances from the international community that Belgrade would not interfere.
Serbia denies Kosovo’s accusations that the former prevented Serbian candidates from running on the ballots. Serbia also denies allegations that demonstrators who clashed with NATO troops and police in northern regions on May 29 were sent by Belgrade.
Serbia still formally considers Kosovo to be part of its territory and demanded more autonomy in Kosovo’s north under a 2013 deal that has not been implemented.
Last week, an aide to US President Joe Biden spoke with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti, pushing Serbia to withdraw armed forces placed near the border and urging protesters to remain peaceful.
Osmani Calls Serbian President ‘Drama King’
Osmani also met with Vucic at a meeting brokered by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron in Moldova last week. She, however, described the Serbian president as “a drama king”, adding that despite meeting him, Vucic had nothing concrete regarding the revival of peace and stability in the region.
“He (Vucic) loves to pretend that he is making great concessions, that there is too much pressure on him, that he’s suffering, that he is in danger and all that. But those kinds of tantrums should be left outside of the room after the age of four,” she said.
