PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Early results show that Kosovo’s right-wing governing coalition parties are leading in municipal elections held on the weekend but that runoffs will still be needed to decide half of the winners. Preliminary results Monday show that
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Early results show that Kosovo’s right-wing governing coalition parties are leading in municipal elections held on the weekend but that runoffs will still be needed to decide half of the winners.
Preliminary results Monday show that half of 38 mayors will still need be decided in Nov. 19 runoffs.
Election authorities said less than 44 percent of about 1.9 million voters cast ballots to elect mayors for 38 municipalities and some 1,000 town hall lawmakers.
Resembling results of June parliamentary elections, representatives of the four right-wing governing political parties are leading in a third of the mayoral posts and town hall assemblies, or the local parliaments.
A right-wing party not in government, the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, is leading in 10 town halls, while Srpska Lista of the ethnic Serb minority is also leading in 10 municipalities.
Most of the attention in the race was going to the job of mayor of Pristina, the capital. There the incumbent, Mayor Shpend Ahmeti, with the left-wing Self-Determination Party, the biggest opposition party in parliament, had the most votes, but not enough to avoid a runoff.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia doesn’t recognize the move.
