According to the Kosovo Central Electoral Commission, in 12 hours of voting, only 253 people out of more than 46,000 citizens summoned to exercise their right to vote went to the polls in Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan. If the vote had been successful, the popular consultation would pave the way for new local elections, to end the tensions that arose after those held in April 2023, in which Albanian mayors were elected despite the turnout of only 3% of voters, due to the Serbian boycott. After the failure of today's vote, another may be called in a year's time. Serbs are a minority in Kosovo, whose population is mostly made up of Kosovar Albanians, but in these four municipalities they make up more than 90% of the local population. The main Serbian political party in Kosovo, the Serbian List, supported by the populist government in Belgrade, and other parties from this minority called for a boycott of the referendum, accusing the government in Pristina of imposing impossible voting conditions. For the consultation to be binding, a turnout of more than 50% was required and postal voting was not allowed, which the Serbs considered difficult to achieve, as they considered the number of voters registered on the census to be exaggerated. The European Union (EU) regretted the boycott of the vote, called after strong international pressure on the Kosovar nationalist government. The Kosovo government, which rejected international calls to dismiss the mayors, instead approved a referendum to start a new electoral process, in a complicated procedure of dubious legality, according to analysts. With their boycott of the polls, the Serbs also intended to denounce an alleged deprivation of their civil rights. Serbia does not recognise the independence that the former province of Kosovo proclaimed in 2008, a decade after the Kosovo War (1998-1999) and after the violent repression that Kosovar Albanians suffered in the 1980s and 1990s at the hands of the Belgrade authorities. Read Also: Pristina says Kosovo police officer arrested in Serbia has been released (Portuguese version)