PRISTINA (Reuters) – Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani announced on Saturday the postponement of local elections scheduled in Serb-majority areas in the north to April 2023 to defuse tensions in the country.
The poll was due to take place on December 18 in several Serb-majority municipalities, including North Mitrovica and Zvecan, where Serb representatives, along with judges and some 600 police officers, resigned en masse in November to protest the authorities’ decision. of Pristina to ban Serbian license plates.
Serbian voters had called for a boycott of the elections. Faced with this blockage, the Kosovar president took the decision to postpone.
“In order to guarantee a high turnout in these elections, to have local and international observers, (…) my opinion is that the postponement is necessary,” Vjosa Osmani told reporters after meeting with party representatives. policies.
(Report Fatos Bytyci in Pristina, Ognen Teofilovski in North Mitrovica and Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade)
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