bureaucratic procedures hamper voters from diaspora

From August 30th to September 10th, Kosovo citizens living in different countries of the world are able to fill out their forms to figure out in the voter register from the diaspora for parliamentary elections to be held on October 6th.

The right to be registered as voters according to the Central Election Commission (KQZ) also have citizens who do not have the citizenship of Kosovo, but who have the right to be citizens of the Republic of Kosovo under the Law on States.

Valmir Elez, the CEC spokesman, tells Radio Free Europe, that registration is necessary because only successful registered people can vote via mail.

Elez has clarified that the application to register as voters outside Kosovo can be made via mail at the address of the CEC or via fax, as well as through official email.

“Starting with some today, the CEC Web site and in CEC social networking accounts will be published all necessary and detailed information for this period of election process. Of course, even at the embassies and Consulates of the Republic of Kosovo, as well as at the distribution points of contact persons of the political subjects registered in the Republic of Kosovo that are found in the diaspora, the necessary information materials” will be distributed, Elesi said.

Citizens of Kosovo who live in different countries of the world based on a Kosovo Statistics Agency report is estimated to be up to 800 thousand, but, in diaspora registration, the process launched by Kosovo authorities years ago, only about 400,000 citizens have been registered so far.

While according to the non-governmental organisation ʹGermin's organization dealing with the diaspora body, there are about 350,000 voters from the diaspora eligible to vote.

Lisa Gashi, executive director of the nongovernmental organisation éerminı, told Radio Free Europe that voters from the diaspora have faced obstacles in exercising their right to vote in the 2017 parliamentary elections.

She says they have asked the CEC for such obstacles not to be repeated in the 6 October elections.

Gashi says voter registration by the diaspora has bureaucratic procedures, which also cloud diaspora participation in the election processes in Kosovo.

The “is a guaranteed right with the Constitution and with the laws in power of Kosovo, but practically it is an indisputable right that does not reach the stage where we can offer alternatives to voters from the diaspora. It's a complicated process and it leaves a lot to wish for. The first to be done is to divide the list between the citizens of Kosovo and the diaspora, the second is to create a census application which would not require a citizen to constantly register as voters and third to have alternatives across the mail, so physical vote must be offered”, Gashi says.

Kosovo, so far, has failed to create the necessary conditions for holding elections in the countries where Kosovo exiles live and operate, and the whole process is done via electronic mail.

Gashi says even the legal deadline for voter registration by the diaspora is short.

Regarding the legal deadline of voter registration abroad, Valmir Elez, CEC spokesman, says “should be taken into account that these are early elections, and the CEC is obliged to cut days or electoral deadlines to enable days which are available”.

The Fazliu stand, from the Diaspora Ministry, tells Radio Free Europe that the electoral process for the 6 October parliamentary elections will help inform the diaspora.

“The Diaspora Ministry makes efforts to inform the diaspora about the way and voting procedures abroad”, it says.

In the 2017 parliamentary elections during the period of voter registration application outside Kosovo as successful registered voters were over 15 thousand citizens.

Years earlier, the Diaspore Ministry had demanded constitutional changes be made so that an opportunity to book seats in Parliament for the Kosovo diaspora can be found.

But, so far no change has been made in this regard.

The diaspora's representation in the country's institutions was deemed necessary to consider their contribution not only to the period of Kosovo's liberation, but also through remittances and assistance to the country's economic development.

For the first five months of this year alone, the value of remittances (money sent from the diaspora), according to the Central Bank of Kosovo, has reached 332m euros.

Last year, however, the value of remittances has exceeded 800m euros, marking the highest value in the last decade.