Political parties launch campaign before legal deadline

However, political parties with their candidates for prime minister have now started the campaign, organising different meetings and meetings with the electorate.

Political issues recognisers say that since the Declaration of Independence, there has been no respect for legal deadlines for campaigning, indicating the uncertainty of political parties that are not enough to extend their programmes to citizens.

And political parties pledge that these meetings are not only happening now, but that they have consistently held meetings and activities on the ground.

Political issue recogniser Ramush Tahiri for Kosova Preress says the prefuge is not legal. While adding that political parties, this is not called campaigning, but political activity.

This is not legal once, because by law the campaign is ten days, for early elections, these don't consider campaigning, they consider party activity...Anni that's enough to take space... they're not sure about the election, they're not sure about the number of deputies who take it out of ten days. Even they haven't made a programme, and they want to take a seat before, it's not legal, the CEC doesn't react because they don't have it as such a party campaign”, Tahiri says.

On the other hand, Blerta Aliu from KDI says these activities do not differ much with those of the election campaign, however, according to the laws in Kosovo, such activities are not prohibited.

“In the absence of an election reform that would make a definition for the first election campaign period, then political parties are free to organise as they would before this period. During the campaign period come to terms, then some rules, we have the code of courtesy for political parties, for candidates meaning that they are activated when election campaign days begin, we have a set of rules that need to be respected. Political parties must be careful not to incite hatred at their gatherings, not to misuse public resources in favour of the campaign, to prevent other parties' products”, Aliu declares.

Similarly, the executive director of the non-governmental organisation “stands up”, Arton Demhayan, who monitors political parties. He has said no political subject is exempted from this practice, while adding that the same are not respecting legal deadlines for campaigning.

The “legally predicted that when the campaign starts even longer, in terms of fair elections, the campaign lasts 30 days, while in the situation when we have early elections as they are now, the campaign lasts only 10 days, so it is known when the campaign starts legally, but it is never respected within political parties. We always see that political parties start the campaign even before the campaign is officially launched, and that's what all political parties do, and this is done in almost all the elections that have been held in Kosovo at least because of the declaration of Independence from now we have no respect for the legal deadlines for the” campaign, Demhay says.

According to Demhaya, these 10 days of campaigning will not be enough for political parties.

The parade has started now, and many days, the candidate for prime minister from the ranks of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani. However, she says these meetings were held even when she was an MP.

I've kept contact with citizens, walks like this, even before we begin our discussions. So it's perfectly natural, but also the practice that is taking place in democratic countries so that even when the official campaign that is used to extend the programme, it's ten days like this, so that contacts with citizens, discussions with them, the delivery of political messages are done much earlier. So it's a democratic practice that you can see from the United States to the European countries”, Osmani declares.

Meetings, and meetings with the electorate are also holding the Social Democrat Initiative, which will compete in the election with the AKR.

Cherkin Dukoli, from this party, argues that the Social Democrat Initiative has always been on the ground to visit citizens.

And what's important is, our voters, our electorate, our activists, on the ground at any moment have really not been silent, we constantly visit citizens, visit our electorate, get acquainted with their troubles, get their exclusives, their demands. And all of these citizens' demands, we try and work in order to turn them into government programs, that's the idea. However, the campaign will be according to 10-day frames”, Dukoli says.

Nature Kuci, a media official at the Social Democrat Party, says meetings with citizens are valid and should be done as much.

“I think all parties are meeting people, that's good. Each subject with meetings, close to citizens, is good to be continuous, not just in the campaign, but I think politics and people in politics should be close to citizens all year round. Of course, the ten-day campaign will be used differently, but meetings with citizens are valid, and should be done as much”, she adds.

Such meetings have been frequented in recent days, including other parliamentary political parties, and mainly larger ones, such as: The Democratic Party of Kosovo, the Vetevendosje Movement, the Democratic League of Kosovo, the AAK-PSD coalition and the AKR-The Social Democrat Initiative.

The election campaign officially starts on September 25th, and ends on October 4th, while early elections will be held on October 6th.