Local Elections in Kosovo: Another ‘new party’ that will quickly fade away, or a ‘normalisation’ of the political conflict?

Kosovo held well-organised local elections on 17 October 2021. Since 2007, local elections in Kosovo have involved two ballots, one for the municipal assembly (voters should pick only one candidate from an open party list) and another for mayors. On 14 November, mayoral runoffs were held in 21 out of 38 municipalities. These were Kosovo’s seventh democratic municipal assembly elections, and the fifth mayoral elections. Albanian majority municipalities saw very competitive elections, which resulted in a massive victory for the opposition parties. In Serbian majority municipalities, all new mayors came from the Serbian List (Lista Srpska, LS) endorsed by the government of the Republic of Serbia. Only in the small municipality of Kllokot had LS to wait for the runoff to have its candidate confirmed for mayor. In what follows, we first provide the context for these elections, then discuss the results and the factors that contributed to them, and hypothesise on their implications for the nation-building and democratisation processes, including possible transformations in inter-party competition.

Ridvan Peshkopia

Ridvan Peshkopia


Ridvan Peshkopia is a Senior Lecturer of Political Science at the University for Business and Technology, Kosovo. He received an MA in Diplomacy from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, and an MA and PhD in Political Science with the University of Kentucky’s Department of Political Science. He spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow with the George Washington University. He also holds a University Diploma in Urban Planning from the Polytechnic University of Tirana and an MSc in Applied Mathematics from the University of Tirana. He publishes in several disciplines and sub-disciplines including international relations, social theory, political behaviour, migration studies, epistemology and film studies.

Artan Mustafa

Artan Mustafa


Artan Mustafa is a Senior Lecturer of Political Science at the University for Business and Technology, Kosovo. He studied at the University of Prishtina (BA), Uppsala University (MSc), and the University of Vienna (PhD), took a study stay at the University of Tokyo, and worked as a pre-doctoral researcher and lecturer on the welfare state and democracy at the University of Vienna’s Department of Political Science. His research interests and publications include the social foundations of political parties, welfare state politics, institutional designs, social policy transformations and outcomes, and globalisation. He serves as a country expert on pensions and social inclusion at the European Social Policy Network (ESPN).


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