Political parties misuse official cars to demand votes

Not uncommonly, government officials have been criticised by civil society for misusing state assets, namely official cars, as official vehicles have also been used on personal needs weekends and even holidays abroad.

Representatives of civil society in Kosovo stress that, as in the past years, cases of exploitation of official vehicles for party purposes have been observed, primarily those in power.

Organisation director “Arise”, Arton Demhayan, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, stresses that particularly the political subjects in power use state resources on the ground to secure votes. In addition to official cars, Demhasaj says even meetings that are before them within the government are being used as a voter mobilization campaign.

These are using the legal space that exists and public meetings are exploiting them for campaigning. We have no law prohibiting this, but it remains based on their will not to misuse cars and public space for campaigning”, Demhaja said.

Otherwise, under the Law for Elections, it is said that “the person who holds a public position, elected or appointed cannot use that office or any of its assets with the aim of winning the” vote.

The law envisions that none of the sources of any public administration institution, whether central or local, or even any enterprise owned or controlled by central or local authorities, can be exploited or brought to the support of any political subject in the election.

Jetmir Bakija, programme manager in the organisation “Democracy Plus”, tells Radio Free Europe that political subjects have not respected the Law for general elections in any election campaign.

This is not fair, it does not ensure equal competition for all parties because those (party) that are not in government or smaller parties that should be treated equally do not benefit from it. The Law for Elections and Election Process in all democracies should provide equal access to all political parties. Because when the election process begins, all political parties are the same and the race should be equal for all”, Bakija said.

Outgoing government officials have not provided an answer to civil society's criticism of the exploitation of public resources for pre-election campaign, while Kosovo Assembly officials have clarified who can use cars during the legal mandate.

Ismet Krasniqi, secretary-general in the Kosovo Assembly, in a more written response to Radio Free Europe, said that <x0-deputet and the chairman of the Parliamentary Group does not have the official Assembly car in use. The chairman and deputy head of the Parliament, however, use the official car until the day of the new legislature's constitutionalisation”.

The election campaign is officially expected to begin on 25 September and will last ten days. But, parties and coalitions have already started election activities, as well as come up with the names of their candidates for the position of Kosovo's next prime minister.

Early elections were made necessary following Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's resignation, due to the invitation he had received from the Kosovo Special Court by The Hague headquarters to interview the quality of war crimes suspect.

Following Haradinaj's resignation, the Kosovo Assembly approved the motion for the distribution of the Parliament, while President Hashim Thaci announced October 6th, the date for holding early parliamentary elections.