Serbs in North Kosovo Boycott Referendum on Ethnic Albanian Mayors

Most Serbs in volatile north Kosovo boycott referendum on removing ethnic Albanian mayors

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Most Serbs in the volatile north of Kosovo boycotted a local referendum on Sunday on whether to remove ethnic Albanian mayors in four municipalities, the country’s election commission reported.

Kosovo, predominantly ethnic Albanian, has around 50,000 Serbs in the north who reject Pristina’s government and consider Belgrade as their capital. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a decade after a guerrilla uprising.

By midday, less than 100 out of around 46,000 registered Serb voters had cast ballots in the four predominantly Serb municipalities – Northern Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok, and Leposavic, according to the commission. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and were scheduled to close at 7 p.m.

Last September, the Pristina government agreed to annul local elections in Kosovo’s north and hold new ones after local Serbs boycotted the vote in April 2023. However, Pristina’s plan for a pre-election referendum asking whether the four mayors should be dismissed was rejected by the leading local Srpska Lista (Serbian List) party, which argued that the mayors should have resigned before a vote.

The Srpska Lista accused the Kosovo government of pressuring and intimidating local Serbs, undermining the integrity of the referendum. Pristina denied these accusations and stated that the referendum was not part of the initial deal between Pristina, Belgrade, and international mediators aimed at resolving the governance standoff in north Kosovo.

The boycott of the referendum by Srpska Lista further escalated tensions between Belgrade and Pristina. Serbia, supported by allies Russia, China, and five EU member states, has never recognized Kosovo’s statehood.

The dispute over the four mayoralties intensified in late 2022 when Serbs resigned from all official posts, including police and local administrations, due to a disagreement over Pristina’s decision to introduce Kosovo car number plates for local Serbs.

Despite years of mediated talks to normalize relations between Belgrade and Pristina, progress has been slow and marked by violence between north Kosovo Serbs, Kosovo police, and occasionally NATO peacekeepers. Regular local elections in the rest of Kosovo are scheduled for October 2025.

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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