UNMIK/PR/420

PRESS RELEASE - 20 November 2000

SRSG Inaugurates Leposavic Municipal Assembly

PRISTINA – SRSG Bernard Kouchner is this morning inaugurating the Municipal Assembly in Kosovo’s northernmost municipality, Leposavic.

The SRSG, with the assistance of the international municipal administrator, has held talks with the Serbian community of Leposavic. With their agreement he has appointed a 17-strong municipal assembly: of those, 14 members are Serbs, one is a Bosniac and two are Albanians. The assembly’s President and Deputy President will also be appointed from among the 17 members.
 
At the same time, the Municipal Assemblies  in Zubin Potok and Zvecan will also be sworn.  There are 17 appointed members in both of these assemblies; of these 15 are Serb and two are Albanian.
 
The results of last month’s municipal elections in the three northern municipalities of Kosovo--Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Zvecan-- were not certified, because too few people had cast ballots. Under the Regulation on the Self Government of Municipalities, the SRSG then had the right  to appoint an assembly.

The appointed assembly members will take the same oath of office as the elected members in Kosovo’s 27 other municipalities. The international municipal administrator will continue to have oversight of the proceedings of the new assemblies, but Dr Kouchner has urged all the new assemblies to work for the future of their communities themselves. 

Dr Kouchner has said that there will be by-elections in these predominately Serb areas, likely early next year. This will allow the people living in these municipalities to be able to elect exactly who they want to represent them.

The Serbian community of Kosovo did not participate in the October municipal elections because they had not entered their names on the voters’ register which was compiled earlier in the year.  A new registration process will be set in motion before any further elections are held in Kosovo to ensure that every one can participate.