Daka-Commissioners: You will bear criminal responsibility if votes are manipulated

And such a proposal was rejected by the Democratic League of Kosovo and the Vetevendosje Movement, and did not get enough votes to join the agenda at the CEC meeting.

CEC member from the Democratic Party of Kosovo Ilir Gashi called for recounting the votes of candidates for MPs if irregularities are presented, as, according to him, previous practices have proved that during the vote count of candidates there have been differences of votes.

Gashi said it is being done in order to increase transparency of the election process.

It would have been good for us to take preventive measures if not because of sanctioning the law to count the votes for a candidate at the centre of the results. I think we have to point out a threshold that if the votes come up over 30 percent in the ballot boxes that have shortcomings of noncompliance between them then we have a total recount of all the candidate boxes. If you want to follow an even preventative process to show the candidates not to deal with the opportunities they might be offered for manipulation”, Gashi said.

Such a request has rejected members of other political parties that are part of the CEC, viewing it as late.

LDK member in the CEC Sami Hamiti said such a request that comes 48 hours before election day should be prosecuted earlier.

Hamiti stressed that the vote count in the QNR has been a requirement since the start of electoral reform, but there has been no political will to make a decision on the issue earlier.

While, Adnan Rrutemi from the Vetevendosje Movement said it is not serious that 48 hours before the election process are required an essential change which has had to be initiated since before the operational plan.

Before work, we are the Election Commission with mandates to organise elections and ensure election improvements, we are not a permanent institution, some of us are true that some aspects of the election process need to strengthen the mechanisms so it's not institutionally and it's not serious that 48 hours before the election day recorded such essential changes in the electoral operation, while here we have been and we haven't dealt with any procedure before, whatever the regulation is, whatever it was before the procedure, as it was said before the commissioner, prior to printing material, prior to the transfer of the 48x>

Meanwhile, Central Election Commission head Valdete Daka despite this request conveyed a message to all political subject commissioners that if they cause any irregularities, criminal outcry will be brought to them.

“Election Day, not only on Election Day, but also after the end of the elections during the vote count and during the end of the election day process of all commissioners who will have even a smaller suspicion, not doubt as well as required by the Criminal Code, but even less doubt that they have made manipulation of candidates or votes of candidates, or votes of political subject, will raise criminal chaos directly on election day and after the day of direct elections by the CEC. Meanwhile, during the auditing of the ballot boxes that will arrive at the QNR there will be these direct criminal cases at the relevant prosecutor”, aka said.

Accredited by 51 observers during this CEC meeting, the total number of those monitoring the 6 October election process totals 34 thousand and 586 observers.

We remember today is the last day of the election campaign, while tomorrow is the electoral silence, while on Sunday, Kosovo citizens will turn to ballot boxes to elect Kosovo's next prime minister.