Uglanin: We received a petition with 4,148 signatures; there is no legal framework for a referendum

The Chairman of the Assembly of the Municipality of North Mitrovica, Nexhat Uglanin, confirmed to Kosovo Online that today at 1:00 PM, he had received a petition from the citizens' initiative group for the dismissal of the Mayor of North Mitrovica, Erden Atiq and that within the next three days, they would submit the petition to the Central Election Commission for verification.

"Today, at 1:00 PM, the citizens' initiative group submitted the list with signatures for the dismissal of the mayor, following the legal administrative instructions. We accepted such a request and the petition. They made a record, and we, as the Assembly of the Municipality of North Mitrovica, made a record of receiving the petition, and everything went smoothly," Uglanin said.

He noted that within their record, it was stated when the petition had started and ended, and 4,148 signatures had been collected.

"That means more than 20 percent. Immediately after that, we informed the Ministry of Local Government and the Central Election Commission that we had received the petition from the citizens' initiative group, and it is well known that there is a legal deadline of three days to submit the petition to the CEC, which I, as the chairman, will, of course, complete," he emphasized.

Our interlocutor stated that regarding the collection of these 20 percent, or 3,640 signatures, that step was completed.

"The next steps are certainly that the CEC must verify these signatures and refer to higher instances for the collection of signatures or the calling of a referendum with 50 percent plus one vote. Given the legal framework's existing difficulties, as there is no legal framework for a referendum, the CEC will certainly submit the Referendum Law to the Assembly of Kosovo for voting. Then it goes to the President of Kosovo for signing, and then the election is called, and the mayor is dismissed through the referendum," Uglanin said.