Valmir Elezi, Spokesperson for the Central Election Commission (CEC), has confirmed that on January 5, 2026, the process of withdrawing packages with ballots belonging to postal voting outside Kosovo was completed, according to CEC plans.
According to Elezit, initially on December 23 and 29, 2025, a total of 28,555 packages of ballots were withdrawn from the two CEC mailboxes in Berlin and Bern.
After the evaluation process, 27,600 packages were approved, while 955 were rejected, mainly due to the lack of a voter registration certificate.
The counting of these ballots began on Saturday, January 3, 2026, at 16:00 PM, and is expected to end today, January 5, 2026.
The process of withdrawing the packages continued on January 2, 2026, when another 8,180 packages with ballots were withdrawn from CEC mailboxes in Prague, London, Paris, Zagreb, Stockholm, Istanbul, New York, Canberra and Copenhagen, which were brought to Kosovo on Monday.
Elezi announced that the process of withdrawing ballot packages was finally concluded on January 5, 2026, while another 11,867 packages were withdrawn from 13 mailboxes in Tirana, Berlin, Vienna, Bern, Brussels, The Hague, Podgorica, Oslo, Skopje, Ottawa, Ljubljana, Rome and Pristina.
In total, around 58 Kosovo citizens were registered to vote by mail in the early elections for the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, held on December 28, 2025.
According to the CEC, packages of ballots withdrawn on January 2 and 5, 2026 will be subject to the evaluation and verification process, while those that will be approved will be counted at the Counting and Results Center (CRC).
In order to facilitate voting outside Kosovo, for voters registered to vote by mail, the CEC has announced that mailboxes have been functional in 23 countries, including: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Canada, Kosovo, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, United Kingdom, Norway, United States of America, Albania, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey and Switzerland. /Telegraph/
