Two complaints against CEC decision to verify voters outside Kosovo

At yesterday's CEC meeting, without any opposition from the members, verification of people outside Kosovo is set to vote by calling them, and if the same does not answer, their application for the vote is refused.

As a violation of the right to vote have considered this decision the Vetevendosje Movement and Germin organisation, handing over the complaint to the Electoral Panel for Ances and Parashtre (PZAP).

“The LVV representatives have agreed that the application for verified recording only for cases of non-compliance according to procedures, when many applications with different surnames and the same number are sent from an email address. For implementation of the CEC decision, it must draft an Administrative Direction that regulates the detailed way of verification. It is expected to be approved today. This directive should exclude any possibility of voters leaving the voting list through a call. With this direction, the CEC Secretariat must be directed to report to the CEC on all cases of inconsistencies that have been verified and the steps of verification undertaken. This administrative directive should be made public shortly after the approval”, the Vetevendosje Movement wrote, after complaining to PZAP.

E Mula Descu from PZAP has confirmed that by Tuesday's noon at this institution, only two complaints have been handed over -- one by the Vetevendosje Movement and spin by the Germin organisation.

According to the latter, the decision should be rejected overall since the same violates citizens' fundamental rights to participate in the elections.

One of the organisation's leaders, Lirim Krasniqi, said the CEC's decision does not provide additional reasonings on the proportion of the measure that has been applied for verification of registration applications outside Kosovo.

“We have given sufficient arguments in the complaint that we have filed in PZAP, there are enough elements to reject as a whole decision because the CEC has made a decision that violates constitutional rights, also has not provided additional rationalities for the measure or prosperity in these measures in addition to other legal norms and also in addition to other constitutional norms, so we believe there are enough arguments to reject as the” decision, he said.

According to him, current legislation in force provides sufficient opportunities for verifying the identity of those outside Kosovo and applying to vote.

The “Telephone, which is set as a measure or as a way to verify the identity of voters, is not proportional because the applicants cannot know when they can accept the call for verification on the part of the CEC and if they are denied the right to vote at the moment when the CEC called them, because they were at work or there were dozens of reasons that could be possible, then they lost the right to vote” he said.

“The CEC will verify the registration application process, contacting all applicants over the phone, if the applicant is not called on the phone then his application will be denied”, said in the CEC's decision.

Early parliamentary elections in Kosovo will be held on February 14th of this year.