Sadiku: It would be good if the citizens of North Mitrovica were represented by as many councilors as possible, but the number has been reduced to 15

The Deputy President of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica, Skender Sadiku, expressed concern that with only 15 councilors in the North Mitrovica Municipal Assembly, a number determined for this municipality by the Central Election Commission, the true representation of the communities living in this municipality will not be reflected after the upcoming local elections.

Due to the CEC’s decision to reduce the number of councilors in the North Mitrovica Assembly from 19 to 15, he believes that minority communities in the municipality will be at a disadvantage.

"If the Serbian community does not boycott the elections, mathematically most of the councilors will be from the Serbian community, which is not good because non-majority communities, especially the Albanian one, but also others, will suffer. With a larger number of councilors, perhaps all communities would be represented, and there might be room in the Assembly for Gorani, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians. There are also people who identify as Montenegrins. North Mitrovica is the only multiethnic city in Kosovo, and I would like for representatives of all communities to take the opportunity to be elected, to freely participate in elections, and for all communities to be present in the Assembly," Sadiku said.

In the last elections, according to him, the number of voters exceeded 20,000, and there was talk that the number of councilors would be increased.

"It would be good for the people to be represented by as many individuals as possible, but that number is being reduced. The basic math is one councilor per 1,000 residents. Realistically, we should have had a minimum of 21 councilors, since the total number should be odd. We thought that in these local elections we would have 21 councilors, not fewer. But, on the other hand, considering that the majority Serbian community boycotted the census, I don’t know what numbers to trust. Only God knows how many citizens there really are," Sadiku told Kosovo Online.

He added that local self-government must address local issues and must not fall into the trap of dealing with big political topics while forgetting the citizens.