- Five-day campaign for the runoff in Drenas/Glogovac (Epoka e Re)
- AKR will join NISMA at Drenas/Glogovac runoff (Klan Kosova)
- Mustafa to invite opposition experts in territory measurement (Bota Sot)
- International assessment confirms Kosovo’s failure in education (Koha)
- Yagcilar to be appointed ambassador to Ankara (Koha Ditore)
- Palmer: Remove corrupt people from important posts (Zeri)
- Bahtiri: The wall was not part of the project (Klan Kosova)
- Pessimism dominates north of Kosovo (Koha Ditore)
Kosovo Media Highlights
Five-day campaign for the runoff in Drenas/Glogovac (Epoka e Re)
Central Election Commission (CEC) announced the final results of the extraordinary elections in Drenas/Glogovac municipality. Head of CEC, Valdete Daka, announced that the number of the complaints at Elections Complains and Appeals Panel with regards to the voting or counting process do not affect the final result. CEC, at the meeting held on Tuesday, has decided that there will be five days of election campaign for the second round of elections in this municipality. The campaign will start on 12 December and will end on the 16th. It also announced that the dates for submission of the requests for accreditation to observe the elections will start on 6 and end on 15 December.
AKR will join NISMA at Drenas/Glogovac runoff (Klan Kosova)
Mitrovica mayor, Agim Bahtiri, told Klan Kosova that the Alliance for New Kosovo (AKR) has decided to join a coalition with the Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA) ahead of Drenas/Glogovac second round of elections. “We have an increase of three hundred percent in Drenas/Glogovac, even though we have expected more. Nevertheless, I want to inform you that AKR-NISMA coalition will become official tomorrow,” Bahtiri said.
Mustafa to invite opposition experts in territory measurement (Bota Sot)
Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa, said on Tuesday that he will invite the opposition parties and civil society organizations to appoint their experts to be involved in measuring the territory of Kosovo in order to see if Kosovo is losing land with the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro. “I will send invitations to all parties and civil society to appoint their experts in order to measure the territory. If Kosovo is not losing land with the demarcation agreement, then this whole thing is only political game,” Mustafa said. He also said that he expects Serb ministers to return to Kosovo institutions soon.
International assessment confirms Kosovo’s failure in education (Koha Ditore)
The paper writes on the front page that the recent survey of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) confirmed what everyone knew all along, that the education sector in Kosovo has failed. The survey which evaluated education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students ranked Kosovo on the 68th place out of a total of 70 countries assessed. The division within the Kosovo’s Ministry of Education that was in charge of organising the evaluation said the results were disappointing and call for urgent measures while the Education Minister Arsim Bajrami said the results should serve as a turning point for awakening of the “national awareness” on the role of education.
Yagcilar to be appointed ambassador to Ankara (Koha Ditore)
Turkish authorities are reported to have requested Kosovo to send an ambassador to Ankara who is from Turkish community. The candidate who is most likely to fill the post is the current Minister of Public Administration, Mahir Yagcilar. A source told the paper that preparations are underway for Yagcilar’s deployment and although the request from Turkey was informal, “it was readily accepted” by Kosovo authorities.
Palmer: Remove corrupt people from important posts (Zeri)
Mathew Palmer, director for South Central European Affairs at U.S. Department of State, during an interview with the paper has encouraged the Kosovo government to remove corrupt and incompetent officials from their posts. According to him, ministers should have a clean past and be devoted to their mission and mandate with a professional capacity. Palmer also talked about the special court for war crimes and said that the international justice is designed to carry out investigations in an independent way and to attribute responsibilities for individuals and not ethnical groups. In regards to Pristina-Belgrade dialogue, Palmer said that the US supports the way in which the EU has conditioned the progress towards EU membership with progress towards normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
Bahtiri: The wall was not part of the project (Klan Kosova)
Mitrovica mayor Agim Bahtiri, said on Tuesday that the wall which is being built on the northern side of Iber River, was not part of the agreed project for revitalization of the bridge. “It was not part of the project, we have informed Brussels,” Bahtiri said and added that he is expecting arrival of a team on Wednesday to follow this development. “It is a European Union project and any deviation from the projects should be ruined. The project of the revitalization of the bridge was done in a perfect manner,” Bahtiri said. “I very much hope that this will not be allowed. I could not meet with mayor of Mitrovica North, but I am waiting for the Brussels team,” he said.
Pessimism dominates north of Kosovo (Koha Ditore)
Residents of the Kosovo northern municipalities have quite a negative perception on the Brussels agreement, concluded a research conducted by the Institute for Territorial Economic Development (InTER) and funded by the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS). The research “Do We Live Better?” focused on the effects of investments in the north from three different sources: the North Kosovo Development Fund, The Government of Kosovo, and the EU Office. It found that despite numerous projects, the citizens in the north are still concerned with processes of transition and the insecurity as a result of the lack of transparency of political representatives.
