KOSOVO: QUINT FACING CRITICAL DECISIONS ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000336 SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE NSC FOR HELGERSON E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/14/2019 TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL KV SUBJECT: KOSOVO: QUINT FACING CRITICAL DECISIONS ON ELECTIONS/DECENTRALIZATION REF: PRISTINA 323 Classified By: C.D.A. Michael J. Murphy for Reasons 1.4 (b),(d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Municipal elections in Kosovo are scheduled to take place on November 15, and the Quint embassies in Pristina--U.S., UK, France, Germany, and Italy--continue to lack consensus on fast-approaching critical decisions on election organization. At the August 7 meeting, the Deputy International Civilian Representative reviewed four issues on decentralization and elections that soon, perhaps as early as August 14, require Quint decisions: 1) the sequencing of the introduction of remaining Municipal Preparation Teams (MPTs) in new Serb-majority municipalities; 2) the timing for the creation of the remaining MPTs; 3) the number of municipalities that will participate in November 15 municipal elections; and, 4) the timing for extraordinary elections in new municipalities that do not take part in the November elections. END SUMMARY ¶2. (C) At the August 7 Quint meeting, representatives from the U.S., UK, French, German, and Italian embassies, along with the International Civilian Office (ICO) and EULEX, discussed decentralization and the November 17 municipal elections. The Deputy International Civilian Representative (DICR) informed the attendees that ICO and the Ministry for Local Government Administration (MLGA) had interviewed 40 applicants during the week of August 3 for the Gracanica Municipal Preparation Team (MPT) and will interview an additional six candidates on August 10. The ICO expects to appoint the Gracanica MPT on August 11 or 12, and it will then proceed immediately to interview candidates for the Ranilug MPT (vice Novo Brdo as originally planned and reported in reftel). Following Ranilug, the ICO and MLGA will have introduced MPTs in three of the six Serb-majority municipalities that the Ahtisaari Plan mandates--Gracanica, Kllokot, and Ranilug. The remaining three will be a redrawn Novo Brdo, Partesh, and Mitrovica North. ¶3. (C) The DICR highlighted that there are four decisions that the Quint must confront in the next two to three weeks that will dictate what occurs following the creation of the planned MPT in Ranilug: -- Sequencing for remaining MPTs - Among the remaining three MPTs--Mitrovica, Novo Brdo, and Partesh--what is the preferred order for introducing the teams? -- Timing for the remaining MPTs - When should the ICO and the MLGA launch the final MPTs? -- Election paradigm - Where should the November 15 elections take place? There are currently 33 functional municipalities, and fully implemented decentralization will increase the number of municipalities in Kosovo to 38. -- Timing for extraordinary elections - In the event that municipal elections occur in fewer than 38 municipalities, when will extraordinary elections in the new municipalities occur? ¶4. (C) The UK representative expressed concern that the GOK is unwilling to introduce all six MPTs prior to the end of August and called for united pressure on Prime Minister Thaci to move forward more quickly. Other meeting participants pointed out that, while the GOK is hesitant to introduce all of the MPTs ahead of elections, there are technical constraints that may affect the MLGA's ability to review, interview, and appoint members to all of the MPTs. Other than the U.S. representative, only the German participant pressed the UK on the wisdom of its recommended approach, however. The DICR reminded the participants that Kosovo's Central Elections Commission is waiting for guidance on how to proceed with elections and has said that it needs a decision on how to stage elections no later than August 24 in order to prepare, and the Quint must start addressing these remaining questions in the coming couple of weeks. PRISTINA 00000336 002 OF 002 COMMENT -------------- ¶5. (C) The Quint's August 7 discussion on decentralization and elections made clear that an apparent earlier agreement on de-linking the two issues (reftel) was not the firm consensus we had hoped. There is still a need to find a way forward within the Quint on the issues and, within the next one to two weeks, to address the questions raised by the DICR. On a technical level, it may not be possible to complete the introduction of MPTs in all of the new municipalities by the end of the month, and we continue to have concerns about introducing an MPT in Mitrovica North at this time. We remain concerned that introducing an MPT in Mitrovica North will yield no Serb participation, risk damaging decentralization's credibility and integrity, and then spark renewed insistence from some quarters to proceed with elections in all 38 municipalities. With three or four MPTs in place by the end of August, the GOK will have demonstrated its commitment to decentralization and then can assess the MPTs' performance before tackling the more difficult challenge that remains in Mitrovica North. ¶6. (C) COMMENT CONT: We would also stress that regardless of how many MPTs the GOK and ICO form this month, the existence of an MPT, by itself, is an insufficient benchmark for judging a new municipality's readiness to stand on its own and hold elections for municipal offices. The GOK is rightly skeptical that any of the new municipalities will be ready for elections and has warned us, and the Quint, that if elections take place in any of the new municipalities, and Serbs fail to participate--allowing Albanians to win office--then the GOK will insist on keeping these offices. Such an outcome would destroy decentralization's promise for contributing to a multi-ethnic and tolerant Kosovo. Minimizing the possibility of such an outcome should be our goal in addressing the ICO's two questions on the election paradigm and timing for extraordinary elections. That said, we should not allow the GOK to delay indefinitely elections in the new municipalities. One Kosovo Albanian interlocutor suggested to us recently that it might be three years before the municipalities are ready for an election--that is clearly unacceptable. Staging elections in the existing 33 municipalities, with a concurrent public GOK commitment to hold extraordinary elections in the new municipalities by Summer 2010, would provide time for the GOK to complete all of the MPTs while allowing the MPTs time to establish administrative structures in the new municipalities. Our goal remains ensuring successful elections while demonstrating a clear and irreversible commitment to decentralization. November elections in the formed functional (33) municipalities is the safest path to that goal. END COMMENT MURPHY