Repeating voting by diaspora for runoff in Dragash kicks off on November 29th

Confrontation between CEC members prompted options for the CEC Secretariat offered when the vote should begin via mail, which the first option was to begin on November 26th and end on December 10th, as the second option begins on December 29th and ends on December 13th.

The head of the CEC Secretariat, Burim Ahmetaj, said they have made all preparations consistent with the decision they have accepted from the Supreme Court.

He said the right to vote through mail is only for voters who are registered as voters outside Kosovo during July 10th-18th, 2021, and that the number of voters outside Kosovo for the Dragas municipality is 1,000 and 90 voters.

The recommendation is to start by November 26th and end by December 10th, and the second recommendation is to begin on November 29th and end on December 13th when it is the last date when all alleged envelopes or packages will be sent to the CEC address. In addition, we have another recommendation that relates to the design of the ballot that will be used in revote in the Dragash municipality”, he said.

These two options did not find support by CEC members, where some of the members considered the first option quick, while the second option as late.

Member of The PDK in the CEC, Arian Elshani, said it supports November 29th as the date for the start of the vote through the mail, until it said the Supreme Court's findings should be taken into account and work to prevent them from being identified in this round.

Even outside voters should have their time, so they should have the time available for this process not to take place in haste, so I am about to start Monday, November 29th. On the other hand, we like the CEC can look at the Electoral Operations Council all found and put in what recommendations we have... As for the ballot, I saw the changes offered, and I agree with these changes”, he said.

The LDK member in the CEC, Florian Dashi, who said an intermediate date should be found between the secretariat's two proposals, which as a proposal set out November 27th.

“Consider one quick and late. Quick is if we try immediately tomorrow to start voting by mail. It's too late if we start somewhere four, five days back. Therefore, I am demanding that even from the way this is organised without an intermediate date, which I think would be November 27,”, he said.

Meanwhile, LVV member in the CEC Alym Rama said this revote process should begin as soon as possible.

If not tomorrow as soon as possible, even tomorrow this process can begin that promise is carried out by those with the nijetin to vote for”, he said.

CEC Chairman Kreshnik Radoniqi said that if the Secretariat is ready then the revote could start tomorrow.

“Who is for the first recommendation, the first November 26th, to begin tomorrow. The Secretariat says we're ready, I'm only connecting according to the Secretary's words, if the Secretariat is ready and everything goes well then I don't know why we put it off. If the Secretariat is willing to start tomorrow, we don't need to postpone it. If the Secretariat has any doubts, then I'm also pushing”, he said.

At this meeting, the CEC decided to recommend the next candidate, Dragana Antonijevic, from the political subject Serbian List that will replace up-to-date MP Ivan Todosijevic, who has a formal form bias.

Otherwise, the Supreme Court has ordered The CEC organises repeat voting by the diaspora for the mayor of Dragas.

The court has partially accepted the LDK candidate's complaint of Dragas chairman Bexhet Xhedeeni, while it has decided to repeat voting from abroad by rejecting Xhedeen's request that votes from the diaspora be included in the final outcome of the second round of elections in this municipality.

diaspora votes at the second round vote for the 17 November local elections had changed the election outcome in Dragash. Following the count of votes from the first hand in the race has emerged Behxhet Xheladini from the LDK, while with regular votes this municipality had won Shaban Shaban from the PDK.