Andric Rakic: In the Kosovo registry, the number of voters in the north is "inflated," which could complicate the vote for dismissal of mayors

Milica Andric Rakic, the Program Manager of the non-governmental organization New Social Initiative, says for Kosovo Online that collecting 20% of signatures to initiate a petition for the dismissal of mayors in northern municipalities of Kosovo is only the first step, and the one that follows, i.e., the local referendum where 50% of registered voters must vote for dismissal, is much more complicated, especially considering that voter numbers according to the Kosovo registry are "inflated."

"Some deadlines have been definitely exceeded, and on the other hand, we had an initial delay that was clear, at least now from this perspective, due to the lack of knowledge of the procedure by local officials and institutions. It is a new procedure, but it is not a sufficient excuse for what we saw at the very beginning of the initiative – the refusal to register the request and then some minor requests to write to whom the information about starting the petition is addressed, and so on. These are simply not the obligations of citizens, and that should not have caused a delay, it seems, of a few days," Andric Rakic says.

She notes that the process is going much slower than it should.

"Part of it is the lack of knowledge of procedures by local officials, and it is possible that the other side of that is a conscious delay in the process by Kosovo institutions, specifically the Ministry of Administration and Local Government. I do not believe that the Central Election Commission will overly politicize the process because, as soon as the conditions were created for the procedure to move to the CEC, some things happened faster, but it is evident that this will be a complicated process and will take longer than necessary. The assessment of the international community before the start of the process was that under ideal conditions, it should take about 180 days for the procedure to be completed from start to finish," Andric Rakic emphasizes.

She believes that collecting 20% of signatures based on the voter registry is not impossible, but the question is what comes after.

"According to the Law on Local Self-Government, 20% of signatures are just the first step, and after that, a local referendum must be organized, where 50% of registered voters must vote for the dismissal of the mayors. That is a much more complicated step, which is difficult to achieve, not only because of the conditions we are in and the high political tensions but also because the voter lists are inflated," she says.

According to the Kosovo registry, there are 45,000 voters in the northern municipalities, and as Andric Rakic says, that is not a realistic number.

"Only in relation to the Serbian voter list, there are 10,000 more. In the Serbian voter list, we had about 35,000 in the last elections. It is clear that these numbers are 'inflated,' and actually reaching 50% of that number realistically means reaching about 70–80% of voters who can exercise their voting rights. It is very complicated to implement," she points out.

She assesses that the idea is that the two sides meet halfway by having mayors resign after collecting 20% of signatures.

"But whether that will happen is a big question mark, and that is a way this could be further delayed. After these 30 days that have started counting, at least in the municipality of North Mitrovica, within which 20% of signatures need to be collected, and in case after that, there is no resignation but a demand to go to a local referendum, in that case, it can last until mid-year," Andric Rakic concludes.