...The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind...
Bob Dylan, Blowing in the Wind
Kosovo’s winds of change have started to blow for real last Sunday. With the final results of the local elections being announced late in the evening, it became clear to all that Kosovars had opted to cast their votes for the long needed change. And with beliefs that the old and well-established parties and electorates cannot be beaten, yesterday proved that Kosovo has also Davids to beat Goliaths. The first round of elections on November 3rd, 2013 did not result with mayors in all municipalities of Kosovo. In twenty-five out of 38 tied results obliged the citizens to vote again on December 1st and decide for one of two top candidates.
And the voting we did. Though slightly less than in the first round, the 40% of voters who defeated the rainy and cold weather to fulfill their democratic obligation have cast the most important votes in post-war Kosovo. Although these were only municipal elections, though 6th in 14 years after the violent conflict, they have generated new power structures in the country and have loudly signaled that the citizens cannot wait any longer for everlasting promises with hardly any signs of their fulfillment. In 19 of 25 municipalities, the voters have decided for a new leadership, with two of them coming as a quite a surprise.
Surprise 1:
The capital of Prishtina has traditionally been led by the Lidhja Demokratike e Kosoves (LDK) since the end of the war. While their scoring on the national level had slightly declined during the last years, Prishtina remained a stronghold of the party. Many in Kosovo had at some point believed that whoever holds Prishtina will also establish the government. Though in the past local elections, the mayor was elected through the run-off, LDK candidates continuously came out as victors, mainly competing against PDK candidates. This year, the first round of elections generated another competitor to the LDK candidate. Shpend Ahmeti, of Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (LVV), was to challenge the two times winner of Prishtina, Isa Mustafa, who also chairs the LDK party. This was the first time the LVV was running in the local elections, and coming second was to be celebrated by their supporters. When the preliminary results started coming out last night, soon they started to show a very tough competition between the two, with Mustafa leading initially. However, after 30 percent of votes had been counted, results showed Ahmeti being for about 1000 votes ahead of Mustafa. Once all the votes had been counted, the Central Election Committee announced that 2580 votes set the two candidates apart, and Ahmeti was declared a winner with 37,001 votes, or 51.76%, compared to Mustafa who had won 34,521 votes, or 48.27%. While this can largely be seen as the victory of Ahmeti, rather than of the Vetëvendosje movement behind him, it also shows an interesting trajectory of the LVV, as well. From a street driven protest movement, the LVV shifted its political engagement to national parliament, but now it has been given a chance to govern for the first time, and governing of the largest municipality in the country will be a real litmus test for their supporters in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Nevertheless, Ahmeti brings forth a totally new category of Kosovar leaders. Educated at the AUBG, Blagoevgrad as Open Society Fellow, and as Ron Brown Alumnus at the Harvard University, his political engagement began only in the last national elections when he established the Fryma e Re (FER) party. He had served with the World Bank, later on, established and ran a think tank and a private business, and for a while even served as board member of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS), all while teaching public policy courses at the American University in Kosovo. Clearly, Ahmeti’s versatile experience, built upon excellent education, and voice raised against bad governance, corruption, and mismanagement at both national and local level have already built him the reputation of an intelligent and capable Kosovar worth to entrust with leadership and governance of the largest municipality in Kosovo, its capital Prishtina.
Surprise 2:
Another interesting story unfolded on the other side of the country. Tough competition took place in Gjakova municipality, the fifth largest in country. In post-war Kosovo, the political leadership of this municipality initially came from the LDK. Nevertheless, the LDK’s leadership faded away and the Aleanca per Ardhmerine e Kosoves (AAK), of Ramush Haradinaj became a serious contender to hold power in this municipality. But a political landscape took a shift in 2009. Mimoza Kusari Lila, who had served as Government’s spokeswoman in 2003, became the first woman to run for a mayor, as a candidate of the newly established party by Behxhet Pacolli, Aleanca Kosova e Re (AKR). 41.50% of votes won, had not secured her the mayoral post, after losing to Pal Lekaj, of AAK. Although in the meantime she became Minister of Trade and Industry and Deputy Prime Minister, Kusari Lila made a comeback to Gjakova this time. She challenged Lekaj again, only to win this time with 52.51% of all the valid votes casted. And above all, Kusari Lila became the first ever woman mayor in Kosovo.
Kusari-Lila is also a candidate whose public reputation has been built on western education, and versatile experience. After graduating economy at the University of Prishtina, she earned MBA at Duquesne University, in Pitssburgh as a Ron Brown Fellow, as well. Her pre-government experience has been built in the civil society since she led the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, after serving with various US funded projects in support of business development. She also has direct experience with the KFOS, since she served as a Committee Member for the Public Administration and Local Government program. Her commitment to improve business environment in Kosovo, while serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, among others have resulted in Kosovo’s improved global ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business report for two years in a row.
Surprise 3:
A specific reason why these elections were cheered as successful even before they took place and votes were counted was participation of the Serb run municipalities of the north. The participation, a result of a series rounds of negotiation between the Kosovar and Serb Prime Ministers, Thaci and Dacic, was seen as a new progress towards further integration of Kosovar Serbs into the state institutions and structures. Once Belgrade decided to encourage Kosovar Serbs to participate, they registered own Gradjanska Iniciativa Srpska (GIS), to compete for leadership of municipalities. GIS was presumed to be a serious contender for the leadership of northern municipalities, while Samostalna Liberalna Stranka (SLS), which had won a number of municipalities in the previous election, would continue to run the southern municipalities. Many in Kosovo were caught in quite a surprise when the results showed that GIS has won leadership in all but one municipality with predominantly Serb population, that of Shtërpce.
What makes this surprise a concern for the future of Serbs’ integration is the fact that its representatives continue to deny Kosovo statehood and strive to return Kosovo to Serbia. If this new development is to be seen as a precursor to the upcoming national elections, then Kosovo faces challenging times ahead, especially in upcoming national elections. As Ahtisaari Plan provides minorities with 20 guaranteed (at least 10 to be held by Serb) seats in the national parliament, opportunity to win more based on election results, and consensual decision on many national interest issues, it is clear that GIS’s current support may replace SLS representative in the national structures, and thus challenge the integration success achieved during the past years. Hence, this is a development to be watched out.
Conclusion
In a number of municipalities the victors were the new and young candidates who gained the trust of the electorate, but in a number of municipalities, the victors were the voters themselves who simply expressed their revolt against bad governance. Ultimately, the pro-democratic change was the victor of these last elections. With such drastic changes in the political landscape being presumed almost impossible, these elections proved that in Kosovo as well David bet Goliath, once again. Same as in the legend, Kosovo’s David is made of young, skilled, experienced and well-spoken Kosovars, who have the courage and wisdom to challenge the large political establishment, but more than that, to present a package of policies and projects that appeal to citizens’ needs better those of the previous leadership.
What remains to be seen is their performance and delivery, which will continue to be an object of civil society’s scrutiny.
Instead of Post Scriptum
Though a victory of Kosovar democracy, the Sunday elections were particularly a victory of the Kosovar voters. Beside deciding based on their true beliefs and expectations, this time Kosovar voters could guard their vote on their own due to the KFOS’s Vote and Watch campaign. Enacted in Kosovo for the first time ever, the campaign enabled Kosovars to send anonymous text messages to a free number (50088), which was enabled by all mobile providers in the country)and report on any irregularity they could have witnessed on their own. The campaign’s motto was that every citizen can guard his/her own vote, and as such minimize the potential for any irregularity to take place. By the end of the first round of elections on November 3 the received more than 16000 SMSs, about 7000 of which arrived during operating hours of the polling centers. About 25 percent of messages received informed the campaign on the presence of the deceased people in the voters’ list, and the same amount reported on a smooth process. other messages informed on manipulations within the polling station, privacy violation, bad management of the polling center, and inappropriate behavior in the voting booth.
Figure 1: the real time presentation of the categories of irregularities as reported by Kosovar citizens on November 3rd, 2013, at 15:40.
Compared to the first round, the number of irregularities reported were much lower. Throughout the run-off day, the campaign received slightly more than 2100 messages. About 30 per cent of the messages informed of the voting process being according to the procedures. The other messages, not exceeding 15 per cent, informed on the deceased people still being present in the voters’ list, manipulations in the voting booth, mismanagement of the polling station, and violation of the voter’s privacy.
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