The GAP Institute has published its report on the level of fulfillment of electoral promises for the 2021–2025 mandate made by municipal mayors during the last local elections.
According to the report, mayors made a total of 1,815 electoral promises during the 2021 campaign, whereas after four years they have fulfilled only 918 of them. According to GAP, 234 promises are partially fulfilled, 218 are in progress, while 382 have not been fulfilled at all.
GAP researcher Bekim Salihu said that mayors cannot complain about unfulfilled promises, since 98 percent of them were under their responsibility and cannot be justified by obstacles from third parties.
At a press conference on Monday, he also highlighted the areas where mayors made progress and those where they failed.
“At the beginning of this mandate, GAP Institute identified that 27 mayors of Kosovo municipalities had made a total of 1,815 promises, and now at the end of the mandate it results that 918 promises have been fully fulfilled, 234 partially fulfilled, 218 are in progress, while 382 promises were not fulfilled during this mandate… Looking by sectors, most promises were fulfilled in health, education, administration, and social issues. The least fulfilled were in urban planning, infrastructure, and public services. This ranking by sectors is new for this mandate, since in previous mandates most fulfilled promises were in infrastructure… From the 382 unfulfilled promises, 98 percent were or remain the responsibility of municipalities to fulfill. They cannot accuse or point to external actors for the failure. Only two percent required inter-institutional coordination or cooperation,” he said.
Mentioning specific mayors, Salihu said that according to the report, the Mayor of Prishtina, Përparim Rama, made 206 electoral promises in 2021, but after four years fulfilled only 78 of them.
He also presented the results of other mayors in Kosovo’s main cities.
“The Mayor of Prishtina had the highest number of promises during this mandate, specifically 206 in total, but by the end of the mandate he had fulfilled only 73 of them… The Mayor of Prizren made 78 promises, of which 42 were fully fulfilled… The Mayor of South Mitrovica had 123 promises during the 2021–2025 mandate, of which 72 were fully fulfilled… The Mayor of Peja, unlike his counterparts, had a smaller number of promises, only 25 in total. By sectors, he stands out in education, economy, and health, but less so in public services. The Mayor of Gjakova had 35 promises, of which 19 were fully fulfilled… The Mayor of Gjilan also ranked among those with a large number of promises, a total of 109, of which 55 were fully fulfilled,” Salihu added.
On the other hand, GAP’s Executive Director, Blendi Hasaj, said that during the 2021–2025 mandate, mayors faced two major challenges.
According to him, the first was inflation, and the second the payment of court and enforcement obligations.
“This mandate, which is coming to an end, was marked by several challenges that even the elected mayors could not easily overcome. These affected the dynamics of work and promise implementation, although they were not factors within their control. I would highlight two. First, inflation, which was the most evident problem in the first two years of their mandate. In 2022 we saw economic operators refusing to carry out projects due to the sharp rise in prices. Likewise, the central government itself was slower in executing public works,” Hasaj emphasized.
In the last electoral campaign, GAP Institute did not record any promises in the ten municipalities inhabited by the Serb community, nor in the Municipality of Mamusha, because the mayoral candidates in these municipalities did not make promises during the campaign.
