After the recount of votes for the parliamentary elections in Kosovo, it was established that at 316 out of a total of 914 polling stations, the changes amount to almost 15,000 votes. Because of this, the entire election process has been called into question.
The process of recounting votes, which continues at the Center for Counting Election Results, has shown that many candidates had votes taken away, while others from the same party had votes added, reports N1 reporter Zana Cimili.
The Central Election Commission of Kosovo decided today to conduct a complete recount of votes at polling stations in 28 municipalities.
The decision was made after a partial recount in 10 municipalities showed major discrepancies in the votes for parliamentary candidates in the early parliamentary elections held on December 28 last year.
These are differences in votes for individual candidates, not for political parties.
The greatest irregularities were recorded in Prizren, where it was determined that more than 10,000 votes for the Democratic Party of Kosovo were attributed to the wrong candidates within the same party during the counting.
This pointed to possible manipulations.
The most affected is the candidate of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Fetah Pacarizi, whose number of votes was reduced from 14,606 to 8,596 after the recount.
In the meantime, the Kosovo prosecution today launched an investigation into possible election manipulations, and the police received an order to identify those responsible for the irregularities in the counting process.
The national coordinator for elections, prosecutor Laura Pula, asked the chief prosecutors and all basic prosecutions to start collecting the necessary information in all municipalities where the recount process has been completed, and to provide relevant evidence confirming the execution of eventual criminal acts related to the election process.
Manipulation of votes in Kosovo is a criminal offense; however, the non-governmental organization COHU! recently published a study showing that more than 90 percent of election manipulation cases end with suspended sentences or fines.
The situation with the vote counting further complicates the political situation in which Kosovo has found itself for more than a year.
According to the estimates of some observers, the recount of votes and the final certification of results by the Central Election Commission could last until mid or late February.
Kosovo has been without fully functioning institutions for a year, and without new institutions, it will not be possible to adopt the budget for 2026.
However, the election of a new president is highlighted as the biggest problem, as one must be elected by the Kosovo parliament no later than March 4 – which is currently nowhere in sight.
If that does not happen, Kosovo automatically goes to new early elections.
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Source: N1, Photo: REUTERS/Florion Goga