Kosovo Parties Gear Up for October Local Elections (Balkan Insight)
Although the local election campaign has yet to start, the opposition Vetevendosje party has already named most of its candidates for mayoral seats.
In a bid to repeat the success it had in the June general elections, when it came in second place, Kosovo’s opposition Vetevendosje movement has announced the names of its mayoral candidates for several towns in the October local elections.
Most other parties have yet to come out with names of candidates, although in some municipalities the names of potential mayors have been revealed.
Vetevendosje’s Shpend Ahmeti, now Mayor of Pristina, and Arber Vllahiu, a former BBC journalist and adviser to former President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga – from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK – have been officially appointed by their respective parties as candidates to become mayor of Pristina.
The country’s two main parties, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, are yet to propose runners for the capital.
But the most likely candidates for the PDK are the head of the party’s Pristina branch, Lirak Celaj and the Minister of Economic Development, Blerand Stavileci.
The LDK may try to reclaim Pristina with the former mayor, Ismet Beqiri.