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The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in Kosovo has confirmed today that it has received several letters requesting the removal of the mayors of four municipalities with a Serbian majority in the north of Kosovo.
It is about the mayors of municipalities in North Mitrovica, Zveçan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok.
Yesterday, a group of citizens of these municipalities said that they tried to request the "dismissal of the current mayors".
The Albanian mayors have settled in the municipal facilities in the north, at the end of May, a step that has provoked protests by local Serbs.
They won the elections held in April, which were boycotted by the Serbs there.
The spokesperson of the CEC, Valmir Elezi, has confirmed for REL that this institution has accepted the documents, but has delegated their drafters to the heads of the municipal assemblies of the respective municipalities, as competent authorities to handle this issue.
He has been summoned to the bylaws of the Ministry of Local Government Administration.
After the protests that have been made against the Albanian mayors in these municipalities, and the request of the international factor to hold new elections in that part, the Kosovo authorities have published an administrative instruction, which provides the procedure for how a mayor can leave the municipality.
A day ago, the chairman of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica, Nexhat Uglanin, told Radio Free Europe that this "initiative" of the citizens was not submitted to him, and it is not in accordance with the administrative instructions of the Government of Kosovo.
"This request was not submitted to the chairman (of the municipal assembly) and was not dedicated to the chairman of the assembly, but to the mayor of the municipality, on the grounds that the services to the citizens are not good".
Uglanin: The request for the dismissal of the mayor in Mitovica e V. contrary to the instruction
The director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, said on Tuesday that the Kosovo authorities have shown that "they are not interested in any extension and normalization of the situation in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo".
As an example of such a thing, Petkovic has mentioned that the "Albanian representatives" in the municipalities in the north have refused to accept a citizens' initiative, justified, according to him, for the removal of "false and illegitimate mayors".
Steps to elections, according to guidance
The administrative instruction for removal of the mayor of the municipality, issued by the Ministry of Local Government Administration, foresees the following steps:
The request must be made by the so-called initiator group, which consists of three or more people with the right to vote in the respective municipality.
This group notifies the chairman of the municipal assembly of the request in question, and the equipment with the necessary documentation.
Then, the group must collect a minimum of 20 percent of the signatures of citizens with the right to vote, with a request for the removal of the chairman.
The list with signatures must be sent to the chairman of the municipal assembly, which later ends up in the Central Electoral Commission.
If the CEC assesses that the conditions have been met, elections are organized to remove the chairman.
If in those elections 50 percent plus 1 vote is secured for the removal of the president, he leaves office and new elections are organized. Otherwise, the initiative fails. It could only be repeated after a year.
Based on the final list of voters for the April elections, in order to move the petition forward, 3,600 signatures are needed in North Mitrovica, 2,600 signatures in Leposaviq, 1,400 signatures in Zveçan and 1,300 signatures in Zubin Potok.
According to the Law on Local Self-Government, early elections for mayors can be held in three cases:
if the current chairman resigns
if citizens request his dismissal through a petition, and
if the mayor does not appear at the workplace for more than a month, without reason./REL
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