Most Serbs in northern Kosovo boycotted a local referendum on April 21 on whether to remove mayors of Albanian ethnic origin in four municipalities.
By around noon, fewer than 100 of the roughly 46,000 registered Serb voters had cast ballots in the four predominantly Serb municipalities of Severna Mitrovica, Zvečan, Zubin Potok and Leposavich. Polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m. local time and closed at 7:00 p.m.
Last September, the government in Pristina agreed to cancel local elections in northern Kosovo and hold new ones after local Serbs overwhelmingly boycotted the April 2023 vote.
But Pristina's plan to hold a pre-election referendum on whether the four mayors should be fired was rejected by the leading local Serbian List party, which said the mayors should have simply resigned before the vote.
According to Srabska lista, the integrity of the referendum was undermined by a campaign of pressure and intimidation of the local Serbs by the Kosovo government, allegations Pristina has denied.
The party also said the referendum was not part of the original agreement between Pristina, Belgrade and international mediators to resolve the governance situation in northern Kosovo.
Srbiska Lista also called on local Serbs to boycott the partial mayoral elections, heightening tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.
BGNES recalls that at the end of 2022, Serbs left all official posts, including in the police and local administration, amid a dispute over Pristina's decision to introduce Kosovo license plates for the cars of local Serbs. In May 2023, while trying to provide security for the new mayors, soldiers from the NATO peacekeeping mission KFOR were injured by the protesting Serbs - some of them seriously.
Regular local elections in the rest of Kosovo are scheduled for October 2025./BGNES
