Democracy in Action issues report on 22-nation election campaign

“Based on our monitoring, we estimate that the election campaign has been calm, held in a competitive environment. Candidates for mayor of municipalities and municipal municipalities have freely unveiled their options and political programmes, where citizens and media participation has been safe and unhindered. A small number of incidents that have been isolated and have not damaged the” election campaign have been marked, reportedly in DnV's announcement, Koha.net broadcasts.

Citizens' Participation in Gatherings

Political subjects in general have held election gatherings of up to 100 participants, 52% of their meetings respectively, then meetings with interest groups, meetings with citizens by door. While an intensification of meetings with citizens has been noticed in the last week of the campaign, and especially the more large-sized election gatherings of up to 1,000 participants have been observed.

Use of Public Resources

Even during this election campaign, public resource use has been noted in 82 cases, where official vehicles, participation of civil servants and official persons in the campaign have been spotted.

The Language of Hatred

Political subjects have been more restrained in the use of hate language, from all activities monitored by DnV, in 22 cases the use of hate speech has been marked.

The Role of Children in Campaigns

The election campaign is marked with children's participation, to 30% of the monitored election campaign activities, or 3,994 children participating in the campaign respectively.

Access to Disabled Persons

Offering access to disabled persons has been another problem that has marked the political parties' election campaign. It has been noted that, in most of these activities, access has not been offered to disabled persons, access has not been offered at 29% of activities, respectively. The participation of disabled persons has been in 151 activities of political subjects.

Women's Turnout

The number of women nominated as a candidate for municipalities is only 8 out of 204 candidates who are running for chairmanship in the country.

Women's participation has continued at low levels throughout the election campaign period. In all activities monitored by DneV women's participation has been at the average 10%. As for women's participation as speakers has been 21%. Exactly 3691 men and only 974 women have spoken.

Media Presence

The media have been present at 51% of the country's internationally monitored election activities and have reported freely.

Security Offering

In most of the monitored cases, the Kosovo Police have taken care of ensuring election activities. For 30 days of campaigning, half the activities held by political subjects have no security at all.

Election Monitoring and Preparations by DnV

Democracy in Action is ready for monitoring local elections in all 38 municipalities in Kosovo. We've recruited about 3 thousand observers who have been subjected to training and are willing to cover all 2,505 locations as much as before they opened on Election Day.

The Co-ordination Centre will be established in Pristina (Hotel Sirius), where through 150 volunteers we will gather all ground data that will be analysed and made known to the public. We remember that during the campaign period, in addition to monitoring the activities of political subjects, DnV has been actively involved in informing and educating voters of the importance of participating in the elections, as well as voting.

The good tradition built on election management, especially from the 2013 elections and this way, we hope to preserve ourselves in these choices. Political subjects and other institutions involved in election management have shown caution and high level of responsibility. Any result of the elections, which are contested, does not guarantee good governance in that municipality, and at the same time seriously damages the reputation of the political subject and the development of the country's democracy.

So we call on all 91 political subjects involved in the race to refrain from any form of pressure on voters or trying to manipulate with the will of citizens.

Security institutions are urged to take the lead in the task of ensuring a calm electoral atmosphere. Further attention should be shown in Serb majority municipalities. In past elections, pressure is reported on voters in these areas, so the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo should be willing to prevent the repetition of such scenarios.

All citizens rightly vote should participate in elections and, by their vote, decide for better administration services, better infrastructure and better health care.

Voters who participate in the election for the first time must be careful that their ballot is not declared invalid. On election day, they will receive two ballot papers. The mayor's ballot should only vote for one candidate. While on the second ballot, they must first mark only one political subject, then on the right side of that same ballot should mark only one candidate for the Communist Assembly.