​CEC provides details for tomorrow's election process, only party votes will be counted at polling stations

The Central Election Commission has already distributed election material, including ballots, to the municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo. Meanwhile, after the completion of the voting process, the counting of ballots for political entities will begin in 941 polling centers, which enables this institution to quickly publish preliminary results.

The Central Election Commission has already distributed election material, including ballots, to the municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo. Meanwhile, after the completion of the voting process, the counting of ballots for political entities will begin in 941 polling centers, which enables this institution to quickly publish preliminary results.

CEC spokesperson, Valmir Elezi, in an interview with KosovaPress, said that the materials have been placed in the Municipal Counting Centers and in the early hours of Sunday, they will be distributed to the voting centers.

"According to plans, the distribution of electoral material, including ballots, has been made to the municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo. The materials have been placed in the Municipal Counting Centers and in the early hours of Sunday, they will be distributed to the voting centers, in which the voting process will begin at 07:00. The number of voting centers that will open on February 9, 2025 is 941, of which 903 for regular voting with a total of 2,533 polling stations and 38 voting centers for conditional voting, one for each municipality, with a total of 56 polling stations. The number of citizens with the right to vote, whose names are distributed in 903 voting centers or in their 2,533 polling stations, i.e. for voting within Kosovo, is: 1,970,944", said Elezi.

He provided details on which votes will be counted tomorrow after the polls close.

“According to the CEC decision, 1,752,650 ballots were printed, of which 1,664 were for voting at regular polling stations, 100 were for conditional voting, 28,450 were for voting by persons with special needs and as reserve ballots, and 38,650 were for voting at diplomatic missions. Therefore, according to the CEC decision, 21,450 or 323,218% fewer ballots were printed than the number of voters… On election day, only the part of the ballots where citizens have voted for political entities will be counted at polling stations. This enables the CEC to quickly publish the preliminary results for political entities. "The next day, unlike in previous elections, at the Municipal Counting Center, the counting of the rest of the ballots will begin, namely the votes for the candidates for deputies," Elezi added.

Elezi has also stopped short of the novelty of these elections, which is the placement of surveillance cameras in the spaces inside the polling station.

"The installation of surveillance cameras in the spaces inside the polling station is done with the aim of guaranteeing the security of electoral materials and preserving the integrity of the voting and counting process at the polling station. The installation of cameras in polling stations will be done by fully ensuring the secrecy of the vote, as they will be placed at the other end of the place where the voting booth will be located and under no circumstances will they be able to record the voter's preference marking. The preservation of camera recordings will be temporary until the destruction of the electoral material, with the exception of those from polling stations where irregularities are identified in order to provide them to law enforcement institutions. On election day, the CEC will not monitor these cameras, so their recording will be done passively and that access to video recordings can only be provided by decision or request of law enforcement institutions", he said.

A total of 28 political entities with 1.280 candidates certified by the CEC are competing for the new legislature.