Four political parties from non-majority communities, as well as the candidate for deputy from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Bekim Haxhiu, have filed complaints with the Electoral Panel for Complaints and Submissions, regarding the publication of the final result by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC).
The ECAP told KosovaPress that they have received seven complaints and that they will decide on all of them within the legal deadline of four days from the date of submission of each complaint.
The Serbian List, Nova Demokratska Stranka–NDS with two complaints, the PAI–PDAK–LPB Coalition and the United Roma Party of Kosovo – PREBK, are the parties that complained regarding the publication of the final result by the Central Election Commission.
Two complaints have been filed by PDK candidate for deputy, Bekim Haxhiu, who tells KosovaPress that the ECAP should refuse to include over 23 thousand packages of postal ballots from voting outside Kosovo, received after the legal deadline, which, according to him, are in violation of the Law on General Elections.
In addition, Haxhiu announced that he also disputes the incorrect calculation of the final result of the CEC, which has affected the distribution of mandates and the ranking of candidates in the December 28 elections.
"It is a good possibility that the ECAP, based on the Law on Elections, that at the end of the process can be contested all those that constitute essential violations of the equality of voters and equality before the vote... We have a Supreme Court decision from 2019 in the annex of the Social Democratic Initiative, where the Supreme Court has ruled in its favor, where votes that came from outside Kosovo and were processed outside the legal deadline cannot be included in the process. The electoral process, for it to be fair and equal, voters must vote at the same time specified in the law," Haxhiu declares.
The Serbian List has also filed a complaint with the ECAP because the CEC, on January 31, did not approve the list of Serbian List candidates who won the mandate in the December 28 elections.
Regarding this complaint, researcher at the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), Vullnet Bugaqku, tells KosovaPress that there are elements for the Serbian List's complaint to be approved by the ECAP.
Regarding the complaint of PDK candidate for deputy, Bekim Haxhiu, he states that now ECAP has the opportunity to address this complaint in its content, as the same had been declared inadmissible twice previously.
"I believe that there are elements, especially the complaint of the entity Lista Srpska, to be addressed by the Electoral Panel for Complaints and Submissions, in terms of the merits of the finding of violations in the decision-making process by the CEC... The ECAP has the opportunity to fully examine, in content, his complaint (of the PDK candidate for deputy, Bekim Haxhiu), even with regard to the acceptance of those votes... Political parties and candidates had the opportunity, at the moment when the CEC decided on the extension of the deadlines regarding the admissibility of votes or ballots for voting by mail, to use the means of complaint within that period. Regarding this element, it may be that the electoral panel rejects the complaint, due to the fact that at the time when the deadlines for complaints about these procedures were in place, candidates or political parties did not use these procedures to appeal in a timely manner", he emphasizes.
The Central Election Commission on January 31 announced the final results for the December 28 elections. This came after a long process of counting and recounting votes, due to irregularities with the votes of candidates for deputies.
After the announcement of the final results, the CEC will wait for the appeal deadlines and then certify the final results.
