July 27, 2010.

27. July 2010.

Taken from “Tanjug” News Agency

The Anniversary of the First Democratic Elections in South Serbia

VRANJE, July 27, 2010 – On July 27, 2002, under the then new Law on Local Self-Government, the first post-war democratic elections were held in Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja.

The elected municipal presidents were the following: Riza Halimi from the Party of Democratic Action (PDA) in Presevo, Nagip Arifi from the PDA in Bujanovac and Slobodan Draskovic from the Democratic Alternative (DA) in Medvedja.

Owing to the voting results of those direct elections, an Albanian was for the first time ever elected for the president of the municipality of Bujanovac, while the local Serbs responded to it by indignation and protests.

Also, the local government in Bujanovac was, for the first time after World War II, taken over by Albanians, who won 23 seats, while Serbs won 18 seats. Albanians in Presevo got 35 out of 38 seats, while the Serbian coalition in Medvedja won 19 out of 25 seats. As soon as the following day, local Serbs from Bujanovac staged protests. By providing a list of their signatures, they demanded re-election at all polling places, while they accused Nebojsa Covic, President of the Coordination Body, for poor election results and, therefore, requested his replacement.