The Balkans Today
LIVE: Kosovo Snap Elections 2017
Stay tuned for all the latest developments, election results and reactions as Kosovo goes to the polls to elect a new government.
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Polling stations across Kosovo opened at 7am, with almost 1.9 million voters eligible to cast their ballots.There are 26 lists - 5 coalitions, 19 political parties and 2 civil initiatives - that are competing for 120 seats in Kosovo’s parliament, out of which 20 seats are guaranteed for minority communities.According to the Central Election Commission, CEC, there are 889 polling stations and 29,000 observers are monitoring the process.The first unofficial results will come out on Sunday evening. -
Kosovo’s elections are marked by grand pre-election coalitions for the first time in the history of multi-party elections in the country, which began in 2000.
These coalitions consist of the same political players, but the old divisions between “war” and “peace” wing parties persist. -
On May 10 yet another government fell before its mandate should have ended, after 78 MPs backed a vote of no confidence in the administration.
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BIRN compiled a brief description of all the parties and coalitions competing in the June general elections. Read more: Who is Who in the Kosovo Elections
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BIRN compiled short profiles of the three candidates for prime minister: PAN coalition's Ramush Haradinaj, LAA coalition's Avdullah Hoti and Vetevendosje's Albin Kurti.
The Warrior, the Wildcard, and the Right-hand Man vie for PM post
Prishtina InsightPrishtina Insight profiles the three contenders for Kosovo’s next Prime Minister. -
Albin Kurti, the candidate for Prime Minister from opposition movement Vetevendosje, stressed the importance of today's snap elections, inviting all citizens to use their right to vote.After he cast his ballot earlier today, Kurti said: “Our commissioners and observers and Central Election Commission took all the measures for the voting process to go as smooth as possible.”“[The number of] citizens participating in the elections will be massive,” he added.
Albin Kurt, the candidate for Prime Minister from opposition movement Vetevendosje, voting | Photo: BIRN -
After casting his vote, Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci invited all of the country’s citizens to vote today, “regardless of ethnicity or political orientation” for Kosovo’s future.“These elections are very important for our country, for the cultivation of democracy and the strengthening of the future institutions of the Republic of Kosovo," he said.
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Isa Mustafa at the polling station. After casting his vote, the head of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, declared that citizens will decide the country’s fate today.
“I fulfilled my civic duty, which I hope all citizens will also do,” said Mustafa. “They will be the ones deciding who will govern the country in the next legislative period.”
Mustafa also called for orderly, fair and transparent elections. -
The PM candidate of the coalition between the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, New Kosovo Alliance, AKR, and Alternative, Avdullah Hoti, headed to the polling station, where after voting he called on citizens and observers to respect the rules in order to have a democratic electoral process today.“I invite all of the citizens to go out and vote because it is a constitutional right to decide for them and their families,” Hoti said.
The PM candidate of the coalition between, LDK, AKR and Alternative, Avdullah Hoti voting | Photo: BIRN -
Early in the morning the website “Fushata2017.com” published a fake exit poll in the name of the Gani Bobi Institute. The head of the institute, Shkelzen Maliqi, denied that the website was related to the Institute.“Gani Bobi does not work anymore; this is a fake website. We are not allowed to publish exit polls before all the polls are closed. The exit polls will be published after 7 pm.”According to the website, which was activated today, the race is closing in between the PDK-AAK-NISMA coalition and Vetevendosje. -
The head of the Kosovo Democratic Party, PDK, Kadri Veseli, made an embarrassing blunder this morning when he headed to the polling station to vote, but forgot to bring his ID.Unable to remember his personal number, he was forced to return later with his ID to cast his vote, TV21 reported.“Citizens should vote freely, for their county and its development,” Veseli said after he finally voted.
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The coalition between the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and the Initiative for Kosovo, NISMA, were planning to infiltrate polling stations with politically affiliated observers registered as members of civil society group, the Regional Institute for Democracy, Human Rights and Political Studies, KALLXO.com revealed on the morning of Sunday’s elections.
Out of 8,800 accredited observers from local NGOs, over half – 4,548 observers – are from this NGO.
All parties running in the election have the right to have a single observer in the polling station, which would limit the pre-electoral coalitions, such as PAN, which gathers 14 parties under its name.
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Blerand Stavileci, PDK’s head of communications, did not outright deny that the coalition tried to infiltrate polling stations by accrediting party-observers as independent observers through an inactive NGO.
“We do not consider that there is a problem; there might be small technical errors that do not impede the process,” said Stavileci.
“There may be various pieces of information that need to be confirmed but they will not be an obstacle to the process. These are technical things, the indications are positive for our victory. The theme of the day is that the elections are going well. Other things are all technical.”
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Several Kosovo MP candidates in today’s elections are relatives of well-known politicians and activists.
Power-hungry heirs
Prishtina Insight: Kosovo parties fill lists with the relatives of well-established politicians and patriots in an attempt to boost credibility and garner support. -
By 11am, voter turnout was 8.45 per cent, the head of Central Election Commission, Valdete Daka, announced at a press conference.She added that this is 1 per cent less than at the previous parliamentary elections in 2014, when 9.46 per cent of eligible voters had cast their ballots by this time.
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The head of the OSCE mission in Kosovo, Jan Braathu, also visited northern Kosovo today.This is the second general election that has been organised in northern Kosovo.Kosovo Serbs living in the area boycotted elections until 2013, when municipal elections were organised in the northern municipalities for the first time.
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Earlier this week embassies of the five NATO quint states reacted against pressures they said were being imposed on Kosovo Serb voters. The French, German, Italian, UK, and US embassies called for investigations into potential cases of voter intimidation. Read more.
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Posters of political entities have been spotted directly next to polling stations in Kosovo, although this violates the law on elections.According to the law, posters of political entities or candidates should been placed at least 100m from polling stations.
A poster of coalition PDK-AAK-NISMA next to the polling station 2005A in Prizren | Photo: BIRN -
At an AAK press conference, Arber Vllahiu, an AAK official, responded to reports that the PDK-AAK-NISMA coalition tried to infiltrate polling stations by accrediting party-observers as independent observers through an inactive NGO.
“I am not fully informed about this. We believe that the more observers there are, the more credibility [the process] will have. We will keep in touch throughout and analyze the situation. The process so far has been fair, civility has been shown. CEC organizes and administers the elections. Please ask CEC about this, considering they organize the elections and they can give you a full answer,” he said.
He called on Kosovo citizens to fulfill their civic duty by going out to vote.
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PDK head of communications Blerand Stavileci violated election silence rules at a press conference this afternoon by discussing election results before the polls close. Adnan Merovci from the Independent Media Commission described this as a legal violation, citing Article 52 of the Law on General Elections.
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Election observers from the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, KFOS, and the Columbus Institute, have received over 1,000 messages by noon after encouraging citizens to report on the voting process.The observers’ joint campaign, called “Vote and Observe”, invites Kosovo’s citizens to report on any perceived irregularities during the voting process using the phone number 500 88.
"Vote and Observe" campaign by KFOS and Columbus Institute -
Read more: For the last episode of the election debate series #DebatPernime, BIRN Kosovo Executive Director Jeta Xharra held one-on-one interviews with the PDK-AAK-NISMA coalition’s PM candidate Ramush Haradinaj and Vetevendosje’s PM candidate Albin Kurti.
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The northern municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, where Serbs have a majority, had the highest voter turnout by 11am, according to the Central Election Commission, CEC.According CEC data, 14.92 per cent of voters had cast their ballots in Leposavic by 11am, while in Zubin Potok, the figure was 21.01 per cent.
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Displaced Serbs from the northern Kosovo village of Brnjak, where 574 voters are registered, came to polling stations by buses from Serbia and Montenegro.
News agency Beta, which interviewed some of these voters, reported that it is expected that in the course of the day one more bus from Montenegro will bring Serbs to vote in Brnjak. -
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During a press conference, Vetevendosje MP candidate Dardan Sejdiu said that there are many attempts to interfere with the voting process. He said that rival political parties have violated the law, mentioning the PDK-AAK-NISMA plan to infiltrate polling stations with politically affiliated observers through a civil society group, which he called a phantom organization.Sejdiu said that they have prepared a lawsuit, and said that law enforcement agencies need to react effectively. He also called on Kosovo citizens to go out and vote.
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In addition to PDK breaking the silence while discussing potential election results, other irregularities were also recorded throughout Kosovo: In Gjilan, a person found out that his dead father’s name was used to vote; in Rahovec, there were reports of individuals distributing campaign materials for PDK-AAK-NISMA; meanwhile, in Prizren, posters promoting candidates were found within close proximity to polling stations.
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Slavko Simic, the leader of the Kosovo Serb party Srska Lista, which is the only one to have received the backing of the Serbian government, said that he expects Kosovo Serbs would vote en masse.“I expect that Serbian people today comes to the polls in mass, to come to the polls organised […] and that we show that we want to participate in this elections in order to act united in the future,” Simic said.
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Aleksandar Jablanovic, head of the Party of Kosovo Serbs, urged Serbs to come to the polls and vote freely.“I’m inviting citizens to come to the polls and elect by heir own free will who will be creating their future in the next four years,” Jablanovic said. “I expect that the elections will be held in a regular atmosphere, as much as it is possible, without incidents such as those that unfortunately happened during the campaign.”
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This election cycle, Kosovo MP candidates promised to finally establish a state healthcare system.
Although the Kosovo Assembly passed a Law on Health Insurance back in 2014, the Ministry of Health has yet to start collecting premiums to establish the Health Insurance Fund.
Read our summary of the healthcare debate, hosted by BIRN Kosovo Executive Director Jeta Xharra.
MP candidates promise public health insurance and increased pensions
Prishtina Insight: Health and social policy experts running as MPs went head-to-head on health sector reform and social welfare policy, promising bigger budgets and higher pensions. -
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By 3pm, voter turnout was 27.94 per cent, according to Central Election Commission, CEC.The highest turnout has been in the Serb-majority municipality of Zubin Potok, with 43.06 per cent of eligible voters having cast their ballot.In the capital, Pristina, voter turnout was 34.10 per cent by 3pm.
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Valdete Daka, head of the CEC, responds to reports that the PDK-AAK-NISMA coalition tried to infiltrate polling stations by accrediting party-observers as independent observers through an inactive NGO.
“We’ve accredited an NGO with 4,000 observers, we cannot carry the responsibility of discerning whether or not they are members of parties. Party members are allowed to be a part of NGOs. Observers cannot manipulate voters - they don’t have access to electoral operations.”
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Kosovo’s State Prosecution announced that it has filed five criminal cases against seven persons suspected of abusing the election process.According to the prosecution, the cases have been opened in Pristina, Peja/Pec, Prizren and Ferizaj/Urosevac, and 100 prosecutors are investigating the alleged abuses.
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The voting process at a polling station in Vajnika in the northern Kosovo municipality of Skenderaj was interrupted for 30 minutes after Vetevendosje commissioners complained of electoral fraud.The four commissioners, who said that they could not stop voter fraud, left the voting centre and did not return by the time voting restarted.Halil Thaci, manager of the polling station, said that he was not informed about any irregularities.
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Kosovo Police temporarily detained 10 election observers from the NGO Regional Institute for Democracy, Human Rights and Political Studies before they were legitimized and free to continue working, the head of the prosecution in Gjakova/Djakovica, western Kosovo, told BIRN.Earlier on Sunday, BIRN reported that the coalition between the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and the Initiative for Kosovo, NISMA, were planning to infiltrate polling stations with politically-affiliated observers registered as members of civil society.Out of 8,800 accredited observers from all local NGOs, over half – 4,548 observers – are from this NGO.
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In a press conference, NISMA’s Bilall Sherifi said that the voting process has gone well so far, and he expects that the second part of the election - the counting of votes - will go the same way.
“We expect that the vote of the sovereign be read in the way that he has cast it. We insist and expect the second part - the counting of the vote - to go as foreseen by the law.”
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The polls for Kosovo’s 2017 general elections will close in a little over an hour.Citizens have until 7:00 pm to cast their votes for the new parliament. Preliminary exit polls will be published soon after, but the Central Election Commission will only make its final results available later in the night.
Photo: Atdhe Mulla -
Vice President of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Memli Krasniqi denied that there were electoral fraud attempts in Vajnika in the northern municipality of Skenderaj, saying that these claims made by Vetevendosje were untrue.
“You are witnesses of fake news that Vetevendosje is spreading through internet websites and phantom Facebook pages in the last weeks, but this will not help them. We do not have information that would indicate problems in Vajnika,” he said.
Instead, Krasniqi insisted that the electoral process was going "very well" and that Kosovo was an example for the region.
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