Blockade of the petition for the dismissal of mayors: Is the north facing new elections or a new crisis?

Kosovo's authorities have insisted for months that if the Serbs want new elections in the north, they should submit a petition to remove the mayors. For this purpose, a special Administrative Instruction was even created. However, when citizen groups initiated these initiatives last week, Albanian local authorities either put them "on hold" or, as in the case of the Assembly of the Municipality of North Mitrovica, rejected them, citing alleged deficiencies in the documentation.

The fact that Pristina is now clearly obstructing its own procedures, according to Kosovo Online interlocutors, indicates that, as things stand, there is likely to be a delay in the entire process. The north is potentially closer to a new crisis than to new elections, which both the Serbs and the international community are advocating. The international community has set this as one of the conditions for the Kosovo Government to de-escalate the situation.

Nexhat Uglanin, the President of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica, confirmed on Tuesday that the request from a group of Serbs to initiate a petition for the removal of Mayor Erden Atiq had been rejected because, as he stated, it was not in line with the Administrative Instruction for the dismissal of the mayor, i.e., it had certain deficiencies.

Formally, the deadline of five days specified in the Administrative Instruction for the local self-government to respond to the petition request has been respected. Still, fundamentally, the same document that Uglanin refers to has been violated.

Eugen Cakolli from the Democratic Institute of Kosovo pointed out that the President of the Municipal Assembly did not have the authority, neither by law nor according to the Administrative Instruction, to assess the acceptability of the request, let alone reject it. He explained that the role of the President of the Municipal Assembly was purely symbolic, and his competence was only to inform other instances. Moreover, he stated that "this obstructive approach made it difficult to implement the Government's obligations in the north but also showed institutional irresponsibility.

Sanja Krtinic, who submitted the request for the initiation of the petition for the removal of the Mayor of North Mitrovica on behalf of a group of citizens, said that the reasons for rejecting this initiative that had been sent to them were senseless and that it was evident that obstruction was at play in all four municipalities in the north of Kosovo. The citizen groups in North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic, and Zubin Potok, who initiated the petition last week, succeeded in submitting their requests to their local self-governments only on the second attempt.

The Administrative Instruction drafted by the Ministry of Local Self-Government envisages that any individual or group of citizens with the right to vote in the municipality can initiate the dismissal of the mayor. Before starting to collect signatures, they must inform the President of the Municipal Assembly. He has a five-day deadline, upon receipt of the notification, to consider and register the initiative group as an authorized person. If this is not done within the deadline, the group can ask the CEC to examine the request and register it as an authorized person. Within five days of registration, the initiative group is obliged to submit the necessary documentation, including the list of signatures and the authorization of the Municipal Assembly for the public space where the signatures will be collected.

Then the CEC, no later than five days after receiving the request, informs the President of the Municipal Assembly and the initiative group about the total number of voters in the respective municipality and the required number of signatures. This group has 30 days to collect signatures, and the deadline can be postponed only once, for an additional 15 days. The signatures are then submitted to the President of the Municipal Assembly and the CEC. Afterward, the electoral institution verifies the signatures, and if there are not enough, equivalent to 20% of the voters, the initiators of the request have an additional ten days to meet this quota. If the CEC confirms that the required signatures have been collected, a vote on the dismissal of the mayor is organized.

The US Ambassador to Pristina, Jeffrey Hovenier, also commented, emphasizing the immense importance that all officials in Kosovo, from the Kosovo Government to all other levels, do everything to enable the full implementation of the Administrative Instruction and reassure all citizens that they could exercise their democratic rights. He recalled that the reason this instruction had been established was at the request of the European Union and the United States to allow citizens in Kosovo to remove mayors if they wish, as an important step in achieving a reduction in tension and de-escalation of the situation in the north. He added that the United States had been very clear, expressing the belief that the four mayors had been elected in a legal manner, but no one could be satisfied with elections in which less than four percent of registered voters had participated.

The conclusions adopted by European ministers at the General Affairs Council on Tuesday also call on the Kosovo Government to hold elections in the north as soon as possible and to establish the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities.

The rejection of the initiative to initiate a petition for the dismissal of the mayor, according to Dusko Celic, a Professor at the University of Pristina with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, was expected. He points out that the goal of Pristina is to retain long-term control over the north and to exert constant pressure on the Serbs through illegitimately elected local authorities.

Celic recalls for Kosovo Online that Pristina organized elections in April, knowing that the Serbs would not participate because the political demands they raised were not met. He emphasizes that only the Albanian population might participate, whose share in the total population is statistically negligible, just a few percent.

"Pristina's scenario was not to take over local power in the north for a month, two, three, or a year, but with a long-term plan to stay in local governments for a more extended period, possibly the entire term, to further destabilize the Serbs in northern Kosovo. This is supported by the fact that these local governments did everything not to serve the citizens in the north but to make life more difficult for the Serbs. Let's remember that they closed construction sites. As a university worker, I want to remind you that they suspended work on the new building of the University in Kosovska Mitrovica. It's a shame what they did to the old Mitrovica cemetery. It's truly shameful to plow a cemetery in the 21st century. In the end, they washed their hands of all this. We will see what the outcome will be in court. There are a lot of things that these local governments did to further destabilize the Serbs", Celic says.

He expects a further deepening of the political crisis in the north, not stabilization.

"Unfortunately, I do not expect new elections in the north anytime soon, unless the foreign factor does something constructive, that is, puts pressure on Pristina", the professor says.

Regarding the message from the US Ambassador in Pristina, Jeffrey Hovenier, that the US expects the Government of Kosovo and officials at all levels to implement the Administrative Instruction for organizing a petition to dismiss the mayors and allow all citizens to demonstrate their democratic rights, Celic notes that the mentioned document was, in fact, aimed at preventing the Serbs from doing anything effective.

"The best way to have new elections in the north, if there is political will, is for those mayors in Pristina to resign. They have stated that they will not do that, of course, and these decisions were not made independently. So then, the multi-month saga began with writing this so-called administrative instruction. The essence was to make it difficult for citizens of Serbian nationality to submit any initiative. When the Serbs eventually organized and followed that instruction, now, as children would say, 'no, it doesn't count', not even that administrative instruction", Celic says.

He emphasizes that it is obvious that these bureaucratic maneuvers from Pristina are aimed at further delaying the extraordinary local elections in the north.

"At the moment, Pristina, considering the discriminatory policy toward the Serbs, open pressure, and institutional pressure in the north, simply does not want to have local elections in the north. And for the Serbs in the north, at least when it comes to local self-government, to take their destiny into their own hands", Celic concludes.

The fact that the President of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica rejected the request to initiate a petition for the removal of the mayors is a warning for both the European Union and the Serbs in Kosovo that Pristina will evidently procrastinate and obstruct its own procedures, political analyst Ognjen Gogic believes. He warns that this could more likely turn into a new crisis than lead to new elections in the four Serbian municipalities in the north.

"Even though Pristina requested through the Administrative Instruction that the Serbs initiate a petition for the removal of the mayors, recent moves show that it does not intend to facilitate and expedite the implementation of this procedure. The fact that some demands of the Kosovo authorities have been met by the Serbs does not mean that the Government in Pristina will be cooperative. This shows the European Union, above all, that this is not the way to overcome the crisis and that Pristina will obstruct its own procedures. This is a warning and an indicator to the international community that they should abandon the petition for the removal of the mayors and instead focus on pressuring and demanding that both the mayors and the councilors resign as soon as possible", Gogic says for Kosovo Online.

However, he says that the rejection of the initiative by a group of Serbian citizens does not mean that the attempt to initiate the removal of the mayors in North Mitrovica, Leposavic, Zvecan, and Zubin Potok has definitively failed.

"As far as I understand, the request submitted in North Mitrovica has been rejected, more like dismissed, but the applicants can rectify the shortcomings. They can either resubmit a supplemented request or file complaints about the actions of authorities in the northern municipalities. Ultimately, they also have the Central Election Commission as a second instance. They have not exhausted all possibilities to launch this initiative; they will only have additional complications. However, this should be understood as a warning that Pristina authorities will do everything they can to complicate this process", Gogic says.

He emphasizes once again that the fact that the Serbs in the northern municipalities accepted Pristina's request and initiated the removal of the mayors through a petition does not mean they will encounter open doors with Kosovo authorities.

"This does not mean that Pristina will make it easy for them. Therefore, they should reconsider whether they should continue this initiative at all because complications will greet them at every next step. When the initiative is approved, signatures are collected through the petition, and later a referendum is announced. There is plenty of room for new bureaucratic obstacles, and Pristina authorities will scrutinize every signature, every comma, making it no easier for the initiators. So, it is really a question of whether they should proceed with this. The worst that can happen is that they start and then at some point give up, that the initiative is not realized, that they do not collect enough signatures of support and do not secure enough citizen participation in the referendum", our interlocutor emphasizes.

He adds that this would then further complicate the position of the Serbian community in northern Kosovo.

"One really needs to question whether it is now necessary to accept these demands from Pristina or if one should remain firm in the position that the Serbs have taken, which is that if new elections are to be held, it must be exclusively after the resignations of mayors. Perhaps this was some maneuver; perhaps the Serbs tried to use this mechanism to show the international community that Pristina is not cooperative and that pressure should then be shifted back to them, insisting that resignations be submitted", Gogic notes.

He questions what the Serbs would gain from this initiative.

"If the petition request is approved, the Serbs would then have to collect signatures for it, followed by a referendum on the removal of the mayors, and only then new elections. People would essentially have to sign something three times to get mayors who would again not have the support of a majority in the municipal assemblies. So, even if new mayors are elected, they would not have the support of municipal assembly members because they are composed of representatives from Albanian political parties. They would obstruct and block the work of these mayors. Therefore, it would be a Pyrrhic victory for the Serbs, even if new elections were called and new mayors were elected", he warns.

He believes that instead, it would be more advisable for the Serbs to stick to the stance that they will participate in new elections, but under the condition that they occur through the resignations of mayors and councilors.

"This is the fastest way and is in line with the EU's demands to call elections as soon as possible. It is also the only way to ensure that these new local authorities in the four northern municipalities are functional and able to meet the needs of the citizens", Gogic concludes.

Program Manager of the non-governmental organization New Social Initiative, Milica Andric Rakic, says for Kosovo Online that, judging by the previous approach of local institutions in the north, there will be significant difficulties in implementing the administrative instruction for initiating petitions for the removal of mayors, and points out that municipal assembly presidents do not have the authority to reject the demands of a group of citizens, nor do they have the power to influence how they will be formulated.

"By all accounts, after two days of clarification about what happened in the institutions, I can only say that it seems that the request was not actually rejected, but an additional document was requested to authorize the chairpersons to register the initiative group for the petition. However, in general, the approach of institutions to this issue shows that there will still be significant difficulties in implementing the Administrative Instruction", Andric Rakic said.

She recalled yesterday's information from the Central Election Commission, which stated that they had received a request to confirm whether the initiators were indeed registered in the municipalities of North Mitrovica, Leposavic, and Zubin Potok, and that additional information had been requested to be forwarded to the initiators.

"I can only conclude that the request was not rejected, but Uglanin used a word that is not suitable for describing what happened. By all accounts, and considering the explanations the initiators received, they were told that they could not be registered with the CEC because, at least in my interpretation, some document is missing that should serve as a kind of authorization for the chairpersons to register them. Therefore, according to the Administrative Instruction and the subsequent steps that have taken place, the president of the municipal assembly does not have the authority to reject the request or influence how the request will be formulated", Andric Rakic stated.

"My assessment is that the international community because they have been signaling this for a long time, does not prefer the petition as an option. It is not something they want to see because it takes a long time. This initial approach of the institutions shows that it can prolong and sabotage at every step. I assume that their pressures will be aimed at the quickest possible resignations of mayors, after perhaps the potential start of signing. I assume they will not risk the petitions potentially failing or being successful in some municipalities and not in others, and that the second step where 50 percent of citizens need to vote will be sought. I think the international community will try to avoid those scenarios because they are really very problematic to implement in such an atmosphere", Andric Rakic stated.