Newly elected president of Gracanica Municipality Vladeta Kostic will take over his duties on Thursday, 29 January. The President of the Gracanica Municipal Assembly, Brankica Kostic, has scheduled the inaugural meeting of the Municipal Assembly of Gracanica, at which Vladeta Kostic will be inaugurated. Vladeta Kostic was elected as president of Gracanica in the first round of extraordinary elections held on 18 January, winning 64.83% of the votes.

Central Election Commission (CEC) has not certified today Vladeta Kostic for mayor of Gracanica, because he still carries a post at the Government of Serbia.

CEC held today a meeting, but it did not make public the decision not to certify the result of the elections for Gracanica mayor.

Koha.net sources within CEC informed that Kostic’s election was not certified and will not be certified until his resignation from the post in the Government of Serbia.

The political struggle of the two rivals in the race for mayor of Gracanica, Vladeta Kostic and Nenad Rasic, has the same goal- that Gracanica become the centre of gathering of all the Serbs.                                                               

Members of the Serbian national forum (SNF) welcome the visit of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, but they complained that he decided to come to Gracanica during the election campaign. SNF made an announcement stating that the visit of Aleksandar Vucic to Kosovo and Metohija, although announced in December last year, “was rescheduled exactly for the time when election campaign for Mayor of Gracanica is on-going. In that way his visit presents preparation for another scenario of deepening divisions among voters. "

Montenegrin Liberal Party supported the candidate of the Citizens’ Initiative Srpska in elections for Mayor of Gracanica. Candidate of CI "Srpska" Vladeta Kostic said that "this decision is deepening cooperation between the brotherly peoples and continues successful cooperation." 

Montenegrin Liberal Party announced that this support is continuation of the cooperation of the Montenegrin Liberal Party and CI "Srpska", which was already shown in the parliamentary elections.

Candidate for mayor of Gracanica Shaip Berisha said on the first day of the election campaign that the biggest problem in the municipality is unemployment.                       

Supporters of the New Party of Kosovo whose president is Dragisa Miric, candidate for mayor of Gracanica, used the first day of the election campaign for the distribution of fliers and calendars and talks with the voters. Miric said for RTV Kim that the citizens of this municipality are mostly annoyed by unemployment. 

"People live from some vouchers and social assistance. Citizens are mostly annoyed by the nepotism, i.e. the fact that in the last fifteen years a membership in the party was the only criteria for the employment. " 

Campaign for the election of the mayor of Gracanica started today and will last until 16 January. Early elections were scheduled for 18 January. Candidates for mayor of Gracanica are Vladeta Kostic from the Citizens' Initiative Srpska, Dragisa Miric from the New Democratic Party of Kosovo, Nenad Rasic from the Progressive Democratic Party (PDS) and Shaip Berisha from the Democratic League of Kosovo.

Early elections for mayor of Gracanica will be held because former mayor of Gracanica Branimir Stojanovic was appointed to the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo.

Kosova Sot front page editorial writes that the major parties of the current coalition, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK,) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK,) agreed in 2011 on the changes of the election law and changes of the Constitution of Kosovo, including the election of the President. However, these pledges remained only in paper and they were never fulfilled. This daily holds the two major parties responsible for the failure and adds that this time, they should reflect in cooperation with the opposition.

The Central Election Commission determined the order of candidates on the ballots for early elections for mayor of Gracanica. Citizens' Initiative Srpska is under number 24, and its candidate for mayor is also the president of the GI "Srpska", Vladeta Kostic. Progressive Democratic Party will have the number 21, the Democratic League of Kosovo number 22 and the People's Movement of Kosovo number 23.