Unlike four years ago, Albanians in North Mitrovica are not expected to run under a joint list in the upcoming local elections scheduled for October 12.
The current mayor, Erden Atiq from Vetëvendosje (LVV)—who in 2022 was part of a joint civic initiative list named “Mitrovica”—has not responded to questions about a potential united front, nor has his cabinet.
However, Skender Sadiku, the head of that civic initiative—which previously united Albanians with other non-Serb community representatives—confirmed that things will be different this time.
“Besides the political spectrum, we also had the VAKAT coalition, which now, unfortunately—or fortunately—belongs to history. The mission of the civic initiative was to unite the political spectrum and to serve as opposition to the Serbian List, which had monopolized the entire Serbian political representation into a single party. Fortunately, the circumstances are changing,” Sadiku told media.
Betim Osmani is expected to be the civic initiative’s candidate for mayor, confirming he will again be in the race under Sadiku’s initiative.
“We will have our candidate for mayor. I hope it will be the same candidate as before, and that’s Betim Osmani. Preparations are underway,” Sadiku said.
From LDK’s branch in North Mitrovica, Besnik Xhaka made it clear that his party will not join a list with Mayor Erden Atiq, citing alleged unlawful and discriminatory actions taken by Atiq against Albanian residents.
“It’s true that last elections had a joint list, but in the upcoming elections this fall, due to the destructive behavior of Mayor Atiq, we cannot have a joint list. He is making illegal and tendentious decisions against local Albanians,” Xhaka stated.
The current speaker of the municipal assembly, Nexhat Ugljanin, acknowledged that the split will harm citizens but revealed efforts are underway to form a separate joint list between Bosniaks and Albanians—but without Skender Sadiku leading it.
“We don’t agree that Skender Sadiku should lead the list. We’re in talks with other parties within the Assembly… (Q: Does this mean there will likely be more than one list?) Most probably, yes. The negotiations aren’t going as they should,” Ugljanin stated.
Unlike the previous elections—where 19 assembly seats were available—the new elections will allocate only 15 seats for the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica.
