Tag: Kosovo

The candidates running for the mayor of this municipality are Sokol Bashota (PDK), Fadil Gashi (LDK), Hajzer Idrizi (LVV), Enver Berisha (AAK), Avni Gashi (AKR), Prend Buzhala (PShDK) and FIlip Berisha (PDI)
The current mayor and Bashota inaugurated the new water factory and the building of the culture centre during the electoral campaign.

Challenged by host Jeta Xharra, on the reasons why they were inaugurated during the campaign, Bashota said that the project were completed during his mandate, although he has made this electoral pledge for two years now.

The 2013 municipal report of the GAP Institute reveals that Klina, with six rivers flowing in its territory has only 23 per cent of its population connected to the public water supply network.

The new water factory will be ready in February 2014, although the municipality has failed to pay its debt of around 300,000 euro to few Dutch and Kosovar construction companies, which has become an obstacle in launching the plant.

During the debate, Bashota said that he had paid the last installment of his debt two days ago, adding that in ten-days time citizens of Klina will have plenty of drinking water.

Klina does not have a Culture Centre, and nor does it have a library. Most of the candidates promised that they will accommodate a library inside the new building of the Culture House. Klina has an overpopulated kindergarten, where the number of children is well above fifty.

The 2013 municipal report from Gap Institute notes that the municipality of Klina has spent more money on the maintenance of cars then on the maintenance of schools, with mayor Bashota’s 67,000 euro Range Rover being one of them.

Filip Berisha (PDI) pledged that the municipality would have only three departments, should he come to power. This model of governance, according to him, was a European one. At the moment, Klina has six municipal departments, renowned for their large spending of public money.

Prend Buzhala (PShDK) was challenged for his political turns he had made in his career, switching between three political parties before. Buzhala said that even the English politician Winston Churchill has changed three parties, but not his principles, claiming that the same is true for himself.

The Vetevendosje candidate, Hajzer Idrizi, answered a question about the equipment in the Youth Centre after it closed down. Idrizi said that all the equipment belonging to the said centre were there and that nobody has touched them.

Enver Berisha (AAK), running for multiple times for this political party, spoke about the reasons why he still is the candidate for the AAK. Berisha said that he would have been the winner of previous elections, had the process not been manipulated, and that is why he enjoys the faith of his political party to run again for Klina. He said that Bashota’s victory in previous elections was embarrassing.

In the meantime, Bashota labeled Berisha from AAK and Gashi from LDK as “veterans of losing”, warning them that the same will happened again during the November 3 elections.
 

Kacanik’s palm trees, planted alongside river Nerodime in 2011, heated the debate between the candidates vying for the mayor of this municipality. Most candidates said that the project was a failed one because most of the trees are dried out because of lack of maintenance.

It was only Selim Reka (LDK) who had a milder approach the palm tree project, noting that the project has been partially successful, bearing in mind that some of the trees are still healthy because cafe owners take care of them.

Apart from Reka, the following are also vying for the mayor of Kacanik: Besim Ilazi (PDK), Afide Kuka (LVV) Avni Tafili (Justice Party), Bardhyl Mjaku (AKR), and Tahit Caka (AAK).

Caka who came second during the extraordinary elections in 2012, was not present in the “Life in Kosovo” debate. According to the AAK branch in Kacanik, Caka was on an official trip abroad.

Bardhyl Mjaku (AKR) has admitted to have been an internet service provider and “dreambox” dealer, which are illegal in Kosovo, since they steal TV channels from other platforms with special satellite devices. Despite this illegal activity, he promised that should he be elected a mayor, he will not breach the law again.

The main problems faced by Kacanik citizens are the water supply, sewage system, road infrastructure, for which the Ilazi from PDK promised improvements.

Candidates running for mayor of Kacanik have promised progress in agriculture, the fight against corruption, as well as investment in healthcare and education.

Apart from the current mayor of the Gjakova municipality, Lekaj from AAK, who is running to secure another term, the candidates include Luan Gola from LDK, Hajdar Beqa from PDK, Arberie Nagavci of Vetevendosje and Mimoza Kusari-Lila from AKR.

Gjakova municipality is the only municipality to have two female candidates running for mayor.
During the debate the candidates of AKR, LVV and LDK criticized Lekaj’s current government in Gjakova. The PDK candidate, however, tried to attract voters by bringing up the Prime Minister and the Government of Kosovo, as if the elections were national and not local.

Once again Pal Lekaj from AAK and Mimoza Kusari-Lila from AKR are facing each other in the race for Gjakova. In their last confrontation, in the 2009 elections, Lekaj arose as the winner.

Both parties were confronted about the employment issue. Lekaj, who won the elections four years ago, had promised seven to eight thousand jobs. He apologized for failing to fulfill this promise, however promised he would achieve it during the next term.

Kusari-Lila avoided talking directly about the employment issue by tackling the infrastructure development of the town.

LDK’s Gola could not explain why his party keeps on losing votes in Gjakova, securing only 1,000 in the 2009 elections.

Gola reasoned that he does not know why the LDK has lost support since he was not a member of the governing structures of LDK in Gjakova before.

Beqa from PDK was asked why he, as the executive chief of the Iber-Lepenc public company, employed his wife. Not managing to answer the question, he also failed to recall even when he got married. Likewise he failed to give an answer as to why he employed Adem Grabovci’s wife, another member of PDK, at Iber-Lepenc.

Arberie Nagavci from Vetevendosje was asked by Gjakova citizens and investigative researchers of BIRN why she spent more time on trainings than in the elementary school, Yll Morina, where she was the headmistress.

She said such allegations come from slandering members of the ruling party – AAK, because, according to her, many people from school’s staff are members of this party.

Nagavci praised her time as the headmistress of the school, saying to saw that many projects were completed at the school.

Part of the debate was concerned Lekaj’s attempt to repair Gjakova’s Old Bazaar by replacing old cobblestones with flat stone tiles from Gllareva. The project was considered harmful to the cultural heritage and halted by the Ministry of Culture.

Nagavci from LVV accused the mayor Lekaj of selling old cobblestones or giving them to private people to pave their gardens. Lekaj denied such accusations, and was again accused once more by his opponents of undermining the economic development of the Old Bazaar.

Lekaj was criticized for giving out tenders without following necessary procedures. Gola from LDK, also criticized the mayor of Gjakova for not presenting the 1 million-euro worth project for reparation of the Old Bazaar to the town’s municipal assembly.

Mimoza Kusari-Lila spoke out about the current property situation, stating that four municipal officials have benefited from the publically owned properties.

Each of the candidates spoke about fixing roads and the lack of building permits, while Lekaj took criticism for the recycling system, which has not been completed.

In addition to the above, all candidates promised the citizens of Gjakova once again that they will pay more devotion to sports, running water, health, economic development and employment.

In the first two minutes that each candidate used to talk broadly about their political offer, all of them emphasized the importance of having economic development as a main priority.

Arber Rexhaj, Vetevendosje’s candidate said that economic development will be achieved through investments in culture and tourism while he promised to also invest in agriculture. Kosovo’s Conservative Party’s candidate said that his party has a master plan for economic development through the creation of an industrial zone of 200,000 hectares. Eqrem Kryeziu from LDK spent his first minutes criticizing the current government but did not provide any alternatives of his own on how to resolve the problems. The current Mayor, who comes from PDK, Ramadan Muja did not take part in the debate while Eqrem Kryeziu, a former mayor of Prizren promised sufficient drinking water for all citizens.

These debates were also characterized by the portrayals of candidates made by their wives, with one telling what an enthusiastic reader her husband is or others praising their husband for being good at house chores and helping them out.

The debate revealed that the current mayor, Agim Veliu, the deputy-mayor travel from Prishtina to work in Podujeve every day, with an official car of the municipality that goes to pick Veliu up in Prishtina every morning and takes him back there after work each day.

Both deputy-ministers Ismet Ibishi from AKR and Naim Fetahu of PDK, travel to Podujeve for electoral purposes with official cars due to them living in Prishtina, and while Ibishi said that he would travel to Podujeve everyday but live in Prishtina, Fetahu promised to move for good to Podujeve if he gets elected. The only candidate that doesn’t own a car but travels with public transportation, is that of Vetevendosje, Vokrri.

Promises that were made ranged from effective governance, agriculture, quality education, tourism development, and cleaning of the Llap river.

Apart from Veliu, all candidates promised to depoliticize the sector of education, while Llumnica promised to build a school in Halabak, and Abdullahu promised to reinforce even stricter criteria on the employment on the education sector.

Almost all candidates promised about 1 million euro to be invested in agriculture, but they were reminded by current Mayor Veliu that the budget for 2014 has already been approved and it foresees only 300,000 euros for agriculture.

The candidates promised investments in sports, with PDK’s Fetahu promising to raise the budget for sports by 200 per cent, while other candidates promised to build a stadium.

Perica Andjelkovic, president of the Za Kosovsko Pomoravle party, said that one of his main priorities is to create a society with a good environment for investments and that he would have a particular focus on protecting local products.

On the other hand, the president of Srpska Narodna Partia Kosova, Milan Aritonovic said that the reason he should be elected is because his political party was established in order to promote the youth. He added that his party has brought business owners from Germany and Switzerland who are willing to invest in Ranillug.
He continued criticizing the current government by saying its decisions are having negative effects on citizens on a daily basis.

Igor Mitic, who is running for Social-Demokratia, declared that his party is strong enough both at the local and central level as well and that he has the unconditional support of two ministries of Kosovo’s Government, that of Labor and Social Welfare and that of Sports and Culture. He emphasized that Minister Rasic has made it very clear that there is political will to employ youth and that they won a 72 million euro donation from the EU in the amount of 72 million euro, 80 million euro from the Swiss government and many others.

The candidates noted that many investments have been done in the area of drinking water, but there are still severe water shortages. According to Aritonovic, all pre-school institutions that work under the parallel system of Serbia face a lack of drinking water and are relying on private sources, which he promised to solve if he wins.
Radovic Zokic on the other side promised that every village would have drinking water, same as Igor Mitic but they did not provide concrete or clear plans on how they would achieve this.

In the village of Pancele, the construction of a church had started but due to property rights issues raised by the Privatisation Agency, construction was halted. Candidates promised to expropriate this property in order to have the church built, while Aritonovic proposed to change its designation as a public toilet if an agreement cannot be reached on the original designation.
 
Igor Mitic declared that in order to fix the sidewalks the municipality needs about 300,000 to 400,000 euro, and that the budget would be secured through the integration of Serbian municipalities but that the state of Serbia could invest as well.