diaspora vote does not guarantee representation in the Assembly

This involvement of the diaspora in the assembly requires changes in the Kosovo Constitution, which have never been initiated by political parties represented in the assembly.

Kosovo's constitution can be changed only through double voting, meaning the vote of two-thirds of the number of Kosovo Parliament deputies as a whole and the votes of two-thirds of MPs from non-communal communities.

Kosovo's Assembly has 120 seats, out of them 20 seats, are guaranteed for non-US communities, ten for the Serb community, and as much for other non-communal communities, respectively.

diaspora vote

The early parliamentary elections on February 14th brought to Kosovo a record number of citizens living in different parts of the world to vote.

The exact number of votes by mail is in verification, but in the Central Election Commission, within the legal deadline, which was until February 12th, 2021, have reached record 43.447 packages with external balloting, which could contain more than one vote.

In Kosovo, rarely have candidates for MPs who came from the diaspora managed to win a mandate.

Cbriye Hoxha is one of the former Kosovo Assembly delegations in the second legislature, which had represented the diaspora. She had come from Sweden, and in the 2004 parliamentary elections she had managed to become an MP.

Hoxha considers it necessary for the Kosovo Assembly to launch procedures for constitutional changes, so that the diaspora will have guaranteed seats in the assembly.

Otherwise, our electoral system is one that can keep out of representation our large charter, which, despite being side-sided by Kosovo institutions, never halted its contribution to Kosovo, even financially. Therefore, I consider that without constitutional changes we will not be able to have real representation of the brain of our exile for the much needed development and democratisation of Kosovo in all areas of life”, Hoxha tells the REL.

Hoxha considers that Kosovo citizens living in different parts of the world can make great contributions to Kosovo's development.

The oldest “and Kosovo's newest, is educated in prestigious educational institutions, have created extraordinary, good experiences from the states with consolidated democracies to bring Kosovo money, in particular to work in the democratisation of the country. The exile has knowledge, capacity and will to help, but unfortunately it has not been given the case”, Hoxha says.

Low diaspora representation

The non-governmental organisation, "Germin," which deals with the diaspora body for years, has ruled that diaspora representatives are guaranteed seats in the assembly. Freedom Krasniqi, researcher and policy analyst at Germin told Radio Free Europe, that there has been no interest in addressing the issue in political parties.

However, he says that while guaranteed seats require constitutional changes, there are several other issues that can only be regulated by political will.

“So far, representation of the interests of Kosovo citizens living abroad, in policymaking institutions in Kosovo is not satisfactory. There are several issues, which await immediate solutions such as easing external voting procedures; resolving the problem of border security officers (green card); cultural centres and improving supplementary learning in the diaspora; increasing economic co-operation beyond remittances”, Krasniqi says.

Based on a Kosovo Statistics Agency report, there are up to 800 thousand Kosovo citizens living in different parts of the world.

The largest number live in the state of Germany, followed by Switzerland, France, and so on.

The diaspora representation in the country's institutions was deemed necessary to consider their contribution to the country's economic development.

Kosovo is one of the countries with the highest level of remittances. Last year alone, the value of remittances was close to 900m euros.