Category: News and Events

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.

In the scope of BIRN’s electoral debate with the candidates of Junik in their first two minutes, candidates provided very general promises on how they will improve the current situation of this municipality, which has only six thousand inhabitants and a budget of 1.5 million euro. Nevertheless, the candidates promised solutions in very general terms for the many problems this municipality faces but without going into concrete alternatives on how to provide better living conditions for citizens.

The current mayor was put in an embarrassing position many times, especially when the host, Jeta Xharra posed very specific questions that came in through kalxo.com by Junik’s citizens. He was not able to answer why he has built in the hills of the municipality, which have been declared a national park. Furthermore, he was also asked why he didn’t pay for a 50-cent ticket to watch the football game between Junik and Ferizaj on March 23, 2013.
Other candidates were put in a similar position such as LDK’s Zenun Shala who has not paid the local tax for his business. PDK’s Nimon Tafaj had to explain the fact that his son’s company has won many tenders through his four-year term as vice-president of the municipal assembly, including janitorial and clearing tenders for which they are not specialized.

A heated discussion between the candidates followed on the health situation of Junik’s citizens, including the building of a Family Health Centre, which was built last year but has started to collapse. On the other side, all candidates promised to build a new culture house, but were not able to say where the money would come from.

All the candidates running for Mayor of Obilic agreed in one point: that in this municipality it is impossible to breathe freely due to enormous pollution caused by coal mines and the power plants.

In his first two minutes, the Justice Party’s candidate, Xhelal Krasniqi, said the central government should give Obiliq, 2 to 3 million euro a year, out of the tax of 80 million euros that it gains from coal, in order to improve the situation in this municipality where the majority of coal reserves are located. On the other hand, the other candidates promised to reach deals with KEK to improve the environment in Obilic.

The current Mayor, Mehmet Krasniqi, from LDK, Vehbi Sadiku from PDK, Labinot Hashani from Vetevendosje, Xhafer Gashi from AAK, Hilmi Halimi from AKR and Bashkim Klinaku from LB are also running to become Obilic’s mayor.  

Vetevendosje’s candidate, Labinot Hashani, promised that if he gets elected, he will plants 200 trees in a 100-hectare park in Obilic, while Hilmi Halimi of AKR said that this is not enough and at least twice as many should be planted. The Justice Party’s candidate said that every citizen of Obilic should plant a tree for his or her birthday, and this way a green ring around the power plants could be created. A similar promise was made by AKR’s candidate but he did not specify numbers.

Other promises were very general, and revolved around economic development and the improvement of business climate.

As far as the specific questions for the candidates, Krasniqi from LDK was asked why he had signed that decision to place his wife, Xhevahire in the position of principal of a primary school. Krasniqi said he did so in order to promote women to decision-making positions. The AAK candidate was also asked about a conflict of interest case, since he had won a tender to produce unique uniforms for the Kosovo Security Force. Gashi admitted that he got the tender through “friends” but that he would not employ these friends if he gets elected. Jeta Xharra also asked Shukri Klinaku why smoking is allowed in his office even that it forbidden by law, while PDK’s candidate, who has reached retirement age, was asked why he was not creating space for younger generations.

The wives of the candidates spoke about the kinds of food their husbands like, ranging from flija to lazanja. It was also revealed that the candidate of Vetevendosje and his wife met during a protest in Merdare last year. The wife of PDK candidate spoke of love letters and white little lies she told her father in order to meet with him.

The format of BIRN Kosovo’s electoral debates foresaw candidates talking about their programmes with a time-limit of two minutes. They used the time to identify the main problems they will seek to resolve and promising citizens very general solutions to these problems.

Some presented projects without explaining where they money will come from, with some promising to try to engage donors, while others said they would rely on the central government’s budget.

BIRN debates also featured very specific and personalized questions for each candidate, which were generated from BIRN and GAP Institute reports, the  www.kallxo.com platform and social media.

The candidates avoided answering some of these specific questions. The Justice Party candidate, when asked how he would manage to run a municipality when according to a written note by the principal of the school where he teachers English, he is not able even to control 40 pupils in his classroom, he seemed embarrassed. On the other side, Bali Muharremaj from AAK, who previously was Suhareka’s mayor for a year, would not answer why during his short mandate, seven teachers were employed without public competition or input.  

LDK’s candidate, Sali Asllanaj, did not answer when asked why he did not take any disciplinary measures against his cousin Ahmet Asllanaj, when the latter had struck the chief of procurement, Sefer Luzhnica.

Rame Vataj, four years ago, had promised to pave the road in the village of Savroe, which he didn’t do. When asked why, he answered that it was the obligation of the Ministry of Transport and that but that the national highway had “taken” that money.

In the end, the majority of the wives of the candidates said that they are the bosses in the house. They also talked about how close their husbands are to their children and what they prefer to eat.

Jeta Xharra, director of BIRN Kosovo, won first prize for TV journalism in an award given by UN women and the group Security and Gender Equality.

The award recognized Xharra for programme dedicated to Kosovo film director Blerta Zeqiri. This prize was given at the opening of a 16-day camapaign against gender-based violence, which concludes on December 10.