Geography of Europe

OSCE: Elections conducted successfully

PRIŠTINA -- The OSCE in Kosovo has expressed satisfaction that the repeat mayoral elections in northern Kosovska Mitrovica they facilitated were carried out successfully.

BELGRADE - Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ioannis Kasoulides will visit Serbia on Monday and confer with the country's senior officials.

During his stay in Belgrade, Kasoulides will confer with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, the Serbian president's office for Cooperation with the Media released.

Rakic, the candidate from the Belgrade-backed ‘Srpska’ list, took 52.6 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s re-run polls to win the mayoralty, according to preliminary results published by the Kosovo Central Election Commission.

Serbia's Electoral Commisssion, RIK, told BIRN that early parliamentary elections due on March 16 will be organized also in the former province of Kosovo.

"There will be three members of the committee at each polling station in Kosovo and ballots will be taken for counting at voting centres in Vranje and Raska [in Serbia]," the RIK said.

Serbian government-backed candidate wins in KM

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- The Citizens' Initiative (GI) Srpska has announced that its candidate for mayor of northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Goran Rakić, won in Sunday's elections.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - A total of 33 polling places in seven polling centres closed in northern Kosovska Mitrovica at 7 p.m. where citizens cast their ballots for the mayor of the city in north Kosovo-Metohija.

Citizens who were at the polling stations by the closing have the chance to cast their ballots and the polling centres officially closed at 7 p.m.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Member of Kosovo's Central Election Commission Nenad Rikalo said on Sunday he expected the votes from the rerun of the mayoral election in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, northern Kosovo, to be counted on the spot.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Regional chief of operations at the Kosovo Police Service Zeljko Bojic stated that 250 members of the Kosovo Police Service would be deployed for the local elections in northern Kosovska Mitrovica on Sunday to protect the safety of citizens and polling places.

BELGRADE - The Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) condemned the decision of the Kosovo Police Service and Pristina institutions to ban around 120 Kosovo Serbs from visiting the graves of their loved ones on Saturday to mark the Orthodox All Souls' Day.

While parts of northern Europe endure their wettest winter since records began,  authorities in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, say they must continue curbing the water supply following a winter drought.

Gjelosh Vataj, from the Regional Water Company, said the local Batllava lake reservoir had lost a couple more centimetres in only 24 hours.