(21 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mitrovica, Kosovo - 21 April 2024
1. Wide of empty street
2. Various of Serbian flags
3. Various of election officials carrying voting material inside the North Mitrovica municipality building
4. Close of Kosovo flag
5. Officials carrying voting material inside building
6. North Mitrovica municipality building signage
7. Officials hanging voting posters
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Artan Muhaxhiri, political analyst:
"I think that it is obvious that this referendum will fail because the vast majority of the Serb community there will not participate in it and this will only mean that this blocking with, will continue and there will be needed a lot of political energy and focus in order to change this situation. There is a lack of willingness to change for the better of this situation, both from Kosovar government and from the Serbian minority and from Belgrade because all sides are sticking to their ideas and they have very little space for compromise, which is absolutely necessary in this situation."
9. Various of election officials carrying voting material
10. Kosovo police observing
11. Pan of interior of polling station
12. Close of referendum ballot papers reading (Albanian/Serbian) "Do you agree that Erden Atiq should be removed from the position of mayor of the North Mitrovica?"
13. Wide of interior of polling station
14. Close of ballot box
15. Wide of Italian multinational unit officer walking past the Mitrovica bridge
16. Wide of Mitrovica bridge
STORYLINE:
Residents of four Serb-majority municipalities are casting their votes Sunday on removing their ethnic Albanian mayors from office following last year’s mayoral elections, overwhelmingly boycotted by the Serb minority.

The referendum — supported by the West — is an attempt to diffuse tensions between Kosovo and its neighboring Serbia as both countries vie to join the European Union.

However, Kosovo's main ethnic Serb party, Srpska List which has close ties with Belgrade, has called to boycott Sunday's poll.

Some 46,500 residents are expected to vote in 47 polling stations, and for the mayors to step down, a majority vote is needed.

In June, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti offered to hold new elections in North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok if 20% of the electorate in the municipalities supported a petition for the polls.

Residents voted in favor of the petition in January,

When Albanian mayors took up the offices last May, Kosovo Serbs clashed with security forces, including NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers, injuring 93 troops, while protesting the results.

Serbia has backed calls for the mayors to step down.

Kosovo was a former Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left some 13,000 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out. Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s 2008 independence.

Tensions between the two countries remain high.

On Monday, Kosovo took another major step toward joining the Council of Europe — the continent’s foremost human rights body — amid Serbian opposition.

The following day, Belgrade authorities stopped Kosovars trying to go home for nearly 20 hours at border checkpoints, saying it was for security reasons.

Pristina accused Belgrade of “holding (Kosovars) hostage” for failing to block Kosovo's Council of Europe membership.

The U.S. and E.U denounced stalling free movement between the two countries.











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