DnV: Many pre-election coalitions, but zero transparency for coalition agreements

DnV estimates that the five-day official campaign, defined by the CEC for the second round of elections, was actually just the conclusion of activities by political subjects, which had not interrupted the campaign since the announcement of results for mayors.

Immediately after the first round of elections, the campaign by candidates of political subjects was shifted from digital to traditional activities, including gatherings with large civic participation or design in public squares. Although social networking posts were not lacking, the main forms of the campaign were public gatherings and the participation in television shows.

Candidate activities in municipalities, whether in closed or open spaces, have largely developed into flagrant violations of all anti measures - CO VID. Organising multiple-higher gatherings of participants than allowed, the failure to wear masks and lack of distance are counted in almost all organised activities. The lack of systematic and routine controls by Kosovo Police and AUV, as well as insufficient fines from these institutions, mainly to minimal value ʹ, have led such meetings to be held freely throughout municipalities, especially during the last days where the number of participants in activities ranged from hundreds to thousands of soos. Even in cases where the CEC itself reported gathering organisation contrary to power measures, no relevant legal actions were taken, without ignoring the fact that most of these gatherings were public or the same were promoted by political subjects and their candidates. Also, a large number of activities have developed in the spaces of various schools in municipalities, even in certain cases within buildings, which constitutes violations of the August decision on the matter.

The phenomenon of coalitions between political subjects or their candidates in various municipalities has been quite expressed, though in certain cases they are not formalised. In some municipalities, however, political subjects and candidates have declared they will not link coalitions with other subjects. And in cases where there were coalitions, unfortunately even in this election process, coalition agreements have not been made public. Thus, citizens have remained unaware of the agreed program points or the sharing of government responsibilities, which represents a lack of transparency in relation to citizens.

Political programmes of candidates have largely been the same as those presented to voters in the first round of elections. In certain cases, candidates have shown sensitivity to the problems citizens have raised during meetings, including them in their programmes. It is noteworthy that in terms of publishing political programs, significant progress has been noted, since in nearly all municipalities that have been campaigning for the run-off, programs have been made public, both in the form of brochures, known in public spaces, or even in certain neighborhoods, both in electronic formats.

However, although programs have been made public, it has not been disclosed who will be responsible for implementing the programme in certain sectors. In this direction, none of the candidates in the runoff race has made public the composition of local-level governing cabinets.

The need for public resources abuse during the campaign has been evidently more present in the run-off race. This has been manifested through the participation of government cabinet members in public gatherings or walking in squares, mainly during working hours. At the same time, the inclusion of the central-level executive in the local race through providing support to the candidates of that political subject, linking the implementation of specific projects with the provision of financial assistance from the Government, has affected the principle of equal electoral race. Likewise, even part of MPs -- from nearly all parties -- have been actively involved in campaign activities.

Unlike the first round of elections where the campaign was generally calm and balanced, cases of frustration in language and harshness among the candidates have been very expressive, especially during television debates, but not excluding talks and communications on social networks.

Programmes and television debates among candidates have been a growing value of this period. The format of debates with only two candidates has enabled more tacit and conservative discussions regarding the candidate's programming bids, unlike the first round debates when it is not made up by the large number of participating candidates and narrow space. However, although improvement has been noted in this direction, still space for further advancement remains, since only individual emissions with the respective candidates have been developed for part of the municipalities.

In the end, the DnV calls on all citizens to vote fairly, so that tomorrow they can come out and vote at most, electing their leaders at the local level, but also contributing to advancing democracy. On election day, DnV will have committed 90 observers, who will be disseminately distributed in municipalities, based on a proven statistical sample.