Kosovan local elections, 2008

The 2008 Serbian local elections in Kosovo were held on 11 May 2008, together with Serbia's parliamentary elections and elections in Vojvodina. UNMIK authorities have criticized Serbia organizing elections saying only the UN can organize elections in Kosovo. Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu accused Serbia of trying to challenge Kosovo's statehood.

There is a total of 115,712 registered voters and they were able to vote in 295 voting places. There are 157 voting places in Central Serbia and Vojvodina, and each of the seven major Montenegrin cities has one, for refugees from Kosovo.

Serbia's elections in Kosovo follow the unilateral declaration of independence by Albanian leadership in Kosovo, a declaration that Serbia considers illegal. This proposal for what many observers have called a de facto partition was said to be in response to unrest in Northern Kosovo and other Kosovo Serb areas. Establishment of Serb institutions in Kosovo is part of the "functional division" of Kosovo proposed by the Serbian government.

UNMIK considers the holding of local elections in Serbia without its agreement as invalid and as a breach of UNSCR 1244. It has, however, proposed to hold local elections in the mostly Serb-populated municipalities of Leposavić, Zubin Potok, Štrpce, Zvečan and Novo Brdo, where the 2007 local elections were declared invalid due to the Serb voters' boycott; however, UNMIK insisted that it would have to organise the elections there, not Serbia, and that the date would likely not be 11 May 2008. UNMIK has no problem with the participation of Kosovo Serbs in the parliamentary election.

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