The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) for the municipal and mayoral elections in Kosovo 22 October said in the evening of Tuesday 24 October: ‘‘the election process differed considerably in Kosovo Albanian-majority municipalities in comparison to Kosovo Serb-majority municipalities".
The chief observer, Alojz Peterle MEP (EPP, Slovenia) said at a press conference in Pristina: "elections were genuinely competitive in Albanian-majority municipalities and the campaign environment was calm, allowing numerous candidates to freely communicate their messages to the voters".
"Within many Kosovo Serb communities, the campaign environment was marred by intimidation targeting in particular non-Srpska Lista (Serb list) political entities and their candidates. This included pressure on individual candidates to withdraw and restricted political competition", he added, noting: "this raises questions about key principles of the overall democratic process in those areas. Some international and European standards were not met".
The mission chief added that election day was calm, without major incidents recorded by the EU EOM observers, who visited 466 polling stations in all 38 municipalities. Polling was overall assessed positively. " However, the elections were negatively impacted by long-standing weaknesses, in particular those related to insufficient corrections and updates made to the voter register, the system of Out-of-Kosovo voting, enhancing the transparency of campaign financing, effectively enforcing campaign finance requirements, and regulating sponsored programs on TV", he said.
The electoral commission says 44% of voters turned out. In total, 19 cities voted a mayor in the first round. In 19 other cities, including Pristina and Mitrovica, a second round of voting will take place on 19 November. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)