Most Serbs in volatile north Kosovo boycotted a local referendum on Sunday, according to the country’s election commission. The referendum was regarding the removal of ethnic Albanian mayors in four municipalities, whose appointment led to violence last year.
Kosovo, predominantly ethnic Albanian, has around 50,000 Serbs in the north who reject Pristina’s government and see Belgrade as their capital. The former Serbian province 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 their ballots in the four predominantly Serb municipalities of Northern Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok, and Leposavic. The polls opened at 7 a.m. 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, the 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.
The Srpska Lista accused the Kosovo government of pressuring and intimidating local Serbs, undermining the integrity of the referendum. The tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have been stoked further as Srpska Lista urged local Serbs to boycott the mayoral by-elections.
The dispute over the four mayoralties escalated in late 2022 after Serbs quit all official posts amid a disagreement over Kosovo car number plates for local Serbs. Despite years of mediated talks to normalize relations between Belgrade and Pristina, progress has been slow, with occasional flare-ups of violence between north Kosovo Serbs, Kosovo police, and NATO peacekeepers.