Lethargy and "Eagle's Nest"

Za "Time" from North Mitrovica

A dusty bus with faded seats left Belgrade for Kosovska Mitrovica at dawn, with the sound of the song "Aj, veseli se kutni hoatinik" playing on the radio, on a regular route. There were only ten passengers all the way to Raška. There's a crowd going there. "Take it easy people, don't push each other. As many people will enter as there is room for them", says the driver.

Around thirty people are waiting in front of the bus who have come to Raska to complete the work they cannot do in the north of Kosovo. Someone came for money, someone for medicine and other basic necessities.

From Raška, the bus continues through Lešak, Leposavić, Zvečan, all the way to Kosovska Mitrovica.

The flag of the Republic of Serbia, recently returned to that place, flies from the Zvečan fortress. While the flag on the promenade in the center of North Mitrovica is no longer there. Some were left hanging on the pole, faded and torn.

On the road from Raška to Mitrovica, among the mountains, there are pre-election posters plastered on flags - Serbian List, the Party of Kosovo Serbs, Serbian Democracy and other political entities that are representatives of the Serbian community in Kosovo.

The day before the elections, not much was said about it among Mitrovica residents. They were sitting in cafes, children were selling their toys on the promenade. It seemed that on that Saturday, the only reminder that elections were being held the next day were campaign posters at every turn.

ELECTION DAY

Sunday, morning, and a huge crowd formed in front of the headquarters of the Serbian List. From there, the sympathizers of this party started to vote collectively. One column was led by the president of the Serbian List, Dr. Zlatan Elek, who arrived to vote at the "Sveti Sava" elementary school around half past eight. The second column continued its journey towards the "Mihailo Petrović Alas" STŠ.

Later in the day, there was no crowd in North Mitrovica for voting. However, the accuracy of the processed data on the turnout in the northern part of Mitrovica, which was extremely low, was doubted. According to data from the Central Election Commission of Kosovo (CEC), the turnout was only 5,30 percent.

In other municipalities in the north of Kosovo, the turnout was more significant - in Zubin Potok it was 55,08 percent, in Zvečan 52,94 percent.

For the municipality of Leposavic, data is still missing. (At the moment of writing this text, data obtained based on 92,1 percent of processed polling stations is available.)

The citizens of Mitrovica were visibly in a dilemma whether to go out and vote at all. "I talked to people from my environment about the attitude towards voting. The people are in a dilemma, and I was thinking about whether I should go to the vote at all, whether by going to the vote we are giving legitimacy to the Kosovo state that does not exist and which we did not recognize", said an interlocutor from North Mitrovica, familiar with local political events, who wanted to remain anonymous for his safety.

He continues: "On the other hand, if we don't go to the elections, there is a risk that our vote will be simply stolen and redirected to some other party, so I went out, but I was aware of today's results. The outcome was expected".

In the evening, the Serbian list declared victory and won all 10 mandates, as many as, out of a total of 120 parliamentary seats, in the Kosovo parliament are reserved for representatives of the Serbian community.

Serbian flags were flying on the promenade after 23 p.m., and people were honking their horns in the streets to celebrate the victory. And in the center, the song "Eagle's Nest" was heard from the speakers.

"I have the feeling that the people are quite lethargic. Everything is normal, people were on the promenade, sitting, drinking coffee. Generally, in the city where I come from, people felt that they were not interested in this policy", adds our interlocutor.

IRREGULARITIES AND BLACKMAIL

Our source reminds us that the existence of blackmail for voting in the north of Kosovo is an open secret. "People are employed and blackmailed with their work to vote. Of course, you always have the opportunity to vote and circle what you want, that's your civil liberty. It seems that this is less important to people than that they keep their positions and that they respect the one who allegedly gave them the job to the end and simply vote for that party."

There was also blackmail from other sides, says our interlocutor. Only instead of a stick - a carrot. He adds, namely, that met with the promise of rebuilding returnees' houses, up to donations and first aid in the form of food. He does not want to name the party that offered it, but he points out that it was certainly not done by smaller parties.

When it comes to irregularities on the voting day itself, Aleksandar Šljuka from the New Social Initiative says that there were not many irregularities during the election day, as can be usual when elections are held in Serbia.

However, there were some. "Certain people were detained for painting ballots, for some other obstructions at the polling station, but it was not massive to the extent that it could affect the election process," says Šljuka.

He reminds that there were certain delays in the opening of polling stations. "The day passed relatively peacefully. Maybe some parties will file appeals and maybe there will be repetitions in some polling stations, but I don't believe that it will have a significant impact on the election result itself", explains Šljuka.

He adds that the processing of the data was also delayed, but that he still does not believe that there were more drastic deviations.

Photo: Vlasov Sulaj / AP photo

KURTI PUKO?

After the closing of the polling stations and the beginning of counting the votes, the CEC website went down. Additionally, during election day and later, there were delays and incomplete data on turnout in certain municipalities.

Šljuka says that he tried to access the CEC website even after midnight. However, to no avail.

Kosovo's Chief Prosecutor requested information from the Basic Prosecutor's Office in Prishtina regarding the non-functioning of the Central Election Commission's platform, the Prosecutor's Council of Kosovo announced on Tuesday (February 11). Chairman of the CEC, Krešnik Radonići, stated that the reason for the site's downfall at the mentioned moments was unknown.

At the time of writing this text, the preliminary election results based on 99,17 percent of processed polling stations look like this: Self-determination won 40,83 percent, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) 22,15 percent, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) 17,59 percent and the coalition of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and the Social Democratic Initiative (AAK - NISMA) 7,47 percent.

What do these results mean? Sljuka reminds that already after 19:37 there were results from the election polls which predicted that Self-determination would win somewhere between 42 and 19 percent. "All in all, already around XNUMX p.m. there were reasons for celebration or sadness, depending on what one was hoping for. According to some initial projections, it was clear that Kurti would not have enough parliamentary seats to form a government by himself or even to form it with minority parties. By minority I mean parties that do not represent the Serbian community."

It will be almost impossible for Self-Determination to form a government, emphasizes the interlocutor of "Vremena". "Of course, we will wait for the final results, given that Kurti, at that meeting of theirs that he had around midnight after the election, said that they had won, that they would form the government of Kurti 3. It remains to be seen what he means and whether we don't know something that he knows."

On the other hand, says Šljuka, the opposition has a very good result. Kurti did win the most votes as an individual party, but the result of the entire opposition is quite good. "In the previous elections, the opposition parties had a total of 37 percent, and now only two parties, PDK and LDK, have about 40 percent. So this is a good result of the opposition parties and they will, of course, be united, probably with some minority parties, that is, several MPs from minority parties, and be able to form a government."

However, what would be the stability of that government?

Sljuka says that such a government would not be overly stable because there is a history of toppling coalition governments in Kosovo, and that Kurti's government is the first to end its four-year mandate. It succeeded partly because it is the first government since 2001 to secure an absolute majority.

"With Kurti who has about 40 percent, it would be extremely difficult for the future government, which would be made up of the current opposition parties, to survive. "Kurti will use every chance to attack them, to try to overthrow that government and to go to new elections where he may achieve a better result", explains Šljuka.

WEIGHT OF EVERYDAY LIFE

The source of "Vremena" who lives in Mitrovica says that he does not feel like a citizen of the second or third class, but like a citizen of the sixteenth class. "We have no realized rights either as Serbs in Serbia or as Kosovars in Kosovo. Somehow we were rejected from both sides. You cannot turn to Kosovo or Serbia for help. Nobody just wants you.”

He cites a recent example: "Visa-free passports were almost introduced, but until then you simply could not travel with the passport of the coordination administration, which means that you had to register somewhere in Serbia and get the documents there. And when you go to check in, then they check you. Well, migrants get Serbian documents more easily than Serbs from Kosovo. The police used to come to the door to see where you are, whether you live there, work... It's a procedure that makes you say: 'Well, I won't, I don't care about Serbian documents, if the condition to get documents from my country is that my country mistreats me the most, then I won't have them'. On the other hand, I don't want to take out the Kosovo documents either, because I don't agree with the existence of that country, because it doesn't exist. Legally, historically, not at all."

How can these elections affect the position of citizens? Šljuka says that they cannot directly, given that the power of the Serbian parties is not great, in the sense that they cannot create policies because they do not have a majority.

However, if the opposition parties now come to power, our interlocutor indicates that there could be cooperation with Srpski List. "If the opposition comes to power, maybe the process of forming the Union of Serbian Municipalities will begin, although it will be very difficult with Kurti."

On the other hand, Šljuka says that the blocking power of Serbian MPs in the Kosovo Parliament is also important and that is the reason why Belgrade wants to have control over MPs in the Assembly of Kosovo.

"For example, when it comes to changing the Constitution of Kosovo, in order for that to happen, we need to have a so-called two-thirds majority. So, a two-thirds majority of all deputies in the parliament, but also a two-thirds majority of members of non-majority communities. There are 20 of them in the parliament, 10 are Serbian MPs and without those 10 it is impossible to adopt such changes", he explains.

THE MORNING AFTER THE ELECTION

After the election, posters remained. People continued to perform their duties. Again, the elections were almost never talked about, or in some places it was only mentioned that the results were known in advance.

Šljuka says that people from the Serbian community who wanted change are probably disappointed because none of the opposition parties entered the parliament. "I would say that for many citizens the situation will not change drastically, that is, life continues, they are used to the fact that the Serbian List has ten seats. And even if there were nine seats, little would fundamentally change for the Serbian community," he explains.

He reminds that whether the situation will improve will depend much more on the results of the upcoming local elections. "How will they behave on the premises, how will they behave towards the Serbian community, i.e. how will some funds be allocated, how will this help and Serbia's presence be articulated on the ground."

Sljuka concludes that people in previous years were dissatisfied with the polarization that was created. "People close to the Serbian List were somehow privileged and privileged. On the other hand, people who were not close to this option are marginalized."

Finally, the interlocutor of "Vremen", who wished to remain anonymous, says that when he moved to Mitrovica, which was in 2006/2007. year, the city was freer. "There was a punk spirit of anarchy. It seems to me that you couldn't get the people around here to do what they were told, they were quite rebellious. Nevertheless, from the events in Banjska onwards, the city is less and less free and the people are more depressed. Both men and women, young and old, who are here now, do not have the courage to do anything, to rebel on any issue because they know that they will end up never being able to return to Kosovo, they will not be able to return to their homes and the people are much more depressed because of that. Everyone is silent, as if we are used to the violence that happens to people here."