2002 Kosovan Local Elections

Local elections were held throughout Kosovo on 26 October 2002, organized by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). This was the second local electoral cycle held in Kosovo after the start of the UNMIK mandate in 1999.

In each municipality, elections were held for municipal assemblies under a system of proportional representation. The elected representatives in each jurisdiction were responsible for choosing an assembly president, who held the rank of mayor. (Beginning with the next local electoral cycle in 2007, mayors were directly elected.)

The Serb community, which had generally boycotted the last round of local voting in 2000, participated in the vote in five predominantly Serb municipalities: Zubin Potok, Zvečan, Leposavić, Novo Brdo, and Štrpce.

In northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbs generally abstained from voting. Milan Ivanović, the leader of the Serbian National Council in northern Kosovo, said that UNMIK had not provided any guarantees that the Kosovska Mitrovica municipal assembly would be decentralized, nor had it created adequate security and institutional conditions for Serb participation. He added that the Serb community was not boycotting the elections in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, as such, but was rather giving the international community the opportunity to organize new elections once certain conditions had been met.

In the rest of the province, Serb participation in the electoral process was minimal.

In November 2002, the Serbian government agreed to give UNMIK direct control over the municipal government of northern Kosovska Mitrovica on a provisional basis.

Results

Gjakova District

Gjakova

Incumbent mayor Aqif Shehu of the Democratic League of Kosovo was confirmed for another term in office after the election. The Gjakova municipal council voted to remove Shehu from office in late 2005, but their decision was overturned by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Shehu appears to have broken with the local LDK leadership during this term.

Deçan

Ibrahim Selmanaj of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo

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