The initiative formally launched by a group of citizens from the north to replace the mayor of North Mitrovica has entered a new phase as of yesterday. The initiative group has been authorized to start collecting signatures for the recall of the mayor.
„I submitted the petition forms. They signed the takeover and the notification about the start of the process of collecting signatures,“ the chairman of the assembly of the North Mitrovica MA, Nedžad Ugljanin, confirmed for KoSSev. Previously, in his first statement yesterday for KoSSev, he stated that the three-member group of Serbs did not come to see him even though Ugljanin’s team reportedly unsuccessfully tried to get in touch with them by email, Viber and phone.
One of the initiators, Sanja Lazarević Krtinić, confirmed that they had received these forms, and that the invitation for the 2 p.m. meeting arrived only two hours earlier – at noon.
„I was at work at the time,“ Lazarević told KoSSev.
On three occasions, Milan Milosavljević, Sanja Krtinić Lazarević and Nikola Arsić tried to submit a request for the initiative to recall the mayor in North Mitrovica. According to media reports, the same request was made simultaneously in the other three municipalities as well, however, there is still no clear confirmation that petitions are being launched in these municipalities as well.
They made the first attempt to submit this request on December 5, in the presence of a select number of media outlets. However, the request was not recorded by the municipality, and the chairman was not present in the municipal building at the time. The municipal officials explained that the request was not addressed to the chairman, as foreseen by the newly adopted administrative instruction for recalling the mayor. Two days later, the same group submitted another request. Within the foreseen five-day deadline, the chairman announced that he „did not accept“ the request, with the explanation that a separate request about the „formation of the initiative group“ was lacking, with a „request that the CEC register them“ as such. After the visit of the US ambassador to South Mitrovica just a day later, during which he appears to have criticized the behavior of Kosovo structures, the process was de facto initiated.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) then confirmed that it had received three separate requests from the presidents of the municipal assemblies of Leposavic, North Mitrovica and Zubin Potok, in which the presidents of these MAs requested information about the initiators and the number of voters. The CEC responded to them, which opened the path for the civil registration of voters, that is, to start with the initiation of the petition itself.
„The total number of citizens who have the right to vote in the municipality of Leposavic is 13,441. Of this number, 2,689 make up 20% of the electorate in this municipality. In the municipality of Zubin Potok, the number of citizens with the right to vote is 6,732. 20% of voters in this municipality is 1,347. In the municipality of North Mitrovica, the number of voters is 18,199. According to the calculation, 3,640 voters make up 20% of the electorate,“ CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi said last week.
Nedžad Ugljanin said in a statement for KoSSev that the initiative group, after receiving the forms yesterday, has the obligation to report the date when it would start collecting signatures, but also to specify the facility where the petition will be held. Then, within 30 days, they are required to collect at least 20% of signatures from registered voters in order for the petition to be deemed successful and forward them to the chairman, who then forwards it to the CEC.
However, the administrative instructions do not specify the obligation to declare the dates for collecting signatures and facilities.
According to Article 6, Paragraph 1, the Initiative Group must collect the required number of signatures within 30 days of receiving the necessary documentation. This deadline can be postponed only once, by 15 days, at the request of the Initiative Group.
Lazarević: We will inform the citizens through a public invitation through the media
Confirming that they now have a 30-day deadline to collect at least 20% of signatures, Sanja Lazarević Krtinić recalled that the deadline can be extended by another 15 days.
„Now we have to copy all the documentation, we have to determine where we will hold the vote collection because we won’t be able to do it outdoors on account of the cold weather,“ Lazarević told KoSSev.
She assumes that the collection of signatures will take place in schools.
„I assume that it will be in schools since the children are on holiday, we’ll see, I haven’t really thought about it in detail,“ she said.
She added that they will inform the citizens through a public invitation through the media.
KoSSev’s interlocutor underlined that once the process of collecting signatures is started, unlike on December 5, when the citizens first tried to submit a request for the recall of the mayor and only select media – Kosovo Online and TV Most – were invited, this time other media, including the KoSSev portal, will be notified about it.
Read more:
Ugljanin rejects residents’ request to recall the mayor, seeks an additional document
An Initiative to recall mayor submitted in Leposavic as well; Radović: No party support
An initiative to replace the mayor submitted in Zubin Potok as wellA group of N.Mitrovica citizens officially submitted an initiative for the removal of the mayor, The MA chairman has five days to respond to it
Will petitions lead to new local elections in the north?
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
