Results announced for northern Kosovo vote

The Serb Progressive Party (SNS) has won the most votes in the local elections held on Sunday in Kosovska Mitrovica.

The Democrats and the Socialists won a majority in the municipality of Novo Brdo, according to the State Election Commission (RIK).

On the state-level, SNS is the leading opposition party, while DS and SPS are part of the ruling coalition.

According to the preliminary results in Kosovska Mitrovica, opposition DSS and ruling DS trail SNS.

The commission said during a news conference today that out of 20,372 registered voters 6,291 cast their ballots in Kosovska Mitrovica, while 900 voted in Novo Brdo, where there are 1,081 registered voters.

In Kosovska Mitrovica, SNS won 1,104 votes, followed by DSS with 1,084, DS with 1,068, while the SPS-PUPS-JS coalition, G17 Plus, SDP Citizens Initiative and SDPS won 554, 442, 461 and 319 votes respectively, said RIK Secretary Veljko Odalović.

In Novo Brdo, DS took 256 votes, followed by SPS-PUPS-JS, SNS and DSS with 393, 186, and 54 respectively.

Odalović said there were no incidents or complaints to the election process, and that parties have until tonight to lodge their complaints

If there were none, Odalović explained, the results published today would be announced as final and complete.

The elections were organized by the government in Belgrade and were met with protests on the southern side of Kosovska Mitrovica organized by ethnic Albanians.

Serbs in the north and Albanians in the south of Kosovska Mitrovica began throwing stones and rocks at each other across the city’s main bridge after some 2,000 Albanians gathered on the south side of the bridge to protest the elections.

KFOR, Kosovo police, KPS, and EU mission, EULEX, police had to intervene on Sunday to stop the conflict from escalating.