Supreme Court rules on Vetevendosje complaint for diaspora votes

“REFUZAZED as the complaint of political subject Vetevendosje Movement, headquartered in Pristina, submitted against the Election Panel's decision on Ancesa and Parashtre A.nr.760/2021, dated March 6th 2021<18x1>, the Supreme decision is said.

Below, find Suprme's reasoning about refusing this complaint: A j y e t m i

With the election panel's decision on the Vetvendosje Accords in Pristina, with which it requested that the Central Election Commission be ordered to do verification and counting of 9,721 (under seven hundredths of 20th) packages delivered by mail from voters outside Kosovo delivered to the post office. 6, on the street '%Agim Ramadani' in Psyhtina.

Against this decision in time has filed a complaint with the political subject Vetevendosje Movement, headquartered in Pristina, with which it disputes the legality of the pending verdict, and proposes that the same decision be annulled and ordered by the Central Election Commission (KQZ), to do the verification and counting of 9,748 (nine hundred years old) packaged ballotes delivered by mail from voters outside Kosovo, reached under the claim by February 12th 2021 but withdrew the CEC on 18th and 25th, 2021.

The PZAP in response to the high political subject's complaint cited contradicts complaints and proposes that complaints be rejected as unfounded.

The Supreme Court of Kosovo, after assessing the amended verdict, complaints, and claims submitted in response, found that: The complaint is unfounded.

The subject's paperwork indicates that, on March 5, 2021, on the case of early parliamentary elections 2021, P ZAP has accepted the appeal of Anr. 760/2021, presented by political subject Vetevendosje (LVV) with headquarters in Pristina, submitted against the CEC decision, no. 860-2021 of March 4th, 2021, with which final results have been announced for the Republic of Kosovo's Parliamentary Elections, held on February 14th 2021, not including 9,748 (under seven hundredths of 20th) package of voters outside Kosovo.

The applicant claims that ballots submitted by voters outside Kosovo must be accepted, classified and counted for the basic objective reason, because all of these ballot packages have delivered remittances in due time within the set deadline without delay. Based on LZP's Article 96.2, it is estimated that votes through voting outside Kosovo should be accepted by the CEC prior to election day, as defined by CEC rules. However, the political subject's claim LVV, is that this legal rate has no concrete through the Election Rule for outstanding subjective situations as major force (vis major). Further in the pre-offensive appeal, the applicant adds, there are other reasons for the circumstantial subjects that reason for accepting and counting c.

The appeal stresses that due to very short deadlines for holding early elections for the Republic of Kosovo, The CEC has failed to meet all legal obligations for the period of application for voting abroad, seen as being with the CEC approved Operation Plan, denying all applicants for voting outside Kosovo the right to use legal means. As proof of their pre- appeal claims, the applicant has attached to appeal correspondence held among CEC members from the ranks of political subject LVV's and Post- DHL as well as the CEC Operator Plan.

The appellater wants PZAP to order the CEC to verify and count 9,748 packaged packages delivered to the post by voters outside Kosovo, who have arrived in the CEC after the deadline set on February 12th 2021.

In response to the appeal of March 5, 2021, the CEC has stressed that at the meeting of March 2nd, 2021, the chief executive chief has announced that the Secretariat has accepted alleged ballot packages after the voting period ended through the post period that has closed on February 12th 2021. The retreat has been made on three different days, on February 18, and February 19, 2021, were withdrawn from the fast post of DHL, 718 packages, while on February 25 of the postal fahu, 9,030 packages were withdrawn.

Consequently, the panel found that these packages had come after the end of the period allowed for voting from abroad and after the election date, and for these reasons refused to appeal to the political subject LVV.

Considering the political subject's complaint LVV, the Supreme Court found that the general complaint in the Republic of Kosovo and in line with Article 12.2 of the Law No. 03L-256 of the Law on Change and Fulfilling of the 03/03 Law L-073 for the General Elections in the Republic of Kosovo predicts PZAP's decision could be appealed.

The Supreme Court estimated that LVV's claims are unfounded, submitted in complaint to the controversial PZAP decision, because there are no irregularities due to which the legality of the PZAP decision would be questioned.

The fact remains that with Article 96 paragraph 2 of the Law for General Elections (LZP), the vote through voting outside Kosovo should be accepted by the CEC before election day, as defined by the CEC rules, while with Article 4 of the Electoral Rule No. 03-2013, determines that the vote outside Kosovo should be accepted by the CEC, 24 hours before election day. In concrete case (as stemming from controversial decision PZAP) voters outside Kosovo -- 9,748 ballot packages -- have been withdrawn late, and that according to the complaint-finder, it is not the fault of voters because they have delivered the same in the mail prior to the deadline. This is also because the remarkable circumstances that such choices are premature and that they are held in pandemic times.

According to the Supreme Court's assessment, determining the legality of PZAP's stance is based on the Constitutional Court Act, in case no. Kl207/19, where claims Supreme Court of the Republic of Kosovo Actuals A.A. U.Z.20/2019 of October 30, 2019 and A.A. U.Z. 21/2019, November 5, 2019, are not compatible with Article 3 of the No.1 European Convention on Human Rights in connection with Article 45 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo.

In the judgments of the Supreme Court mentioned in 2019, such claims had been accepted, praising whether the verification and counting of the ballots described in these acts does not prevent the process and verification and then the counting of voters abroad.

After the Constitutional Court Act, No. KI207/19, these claims cannot be accepted because they conflict with this act of judgment.

As for the large force (vis major) in the complaint party's claims, the complaint reveals that the CEC has not been announced by anyone that there has been any major obstacle to reaching postal shipments in Kosovo, and it is also worth stressing that the total delivery of mail has been around 43 thousand shipments, which have reached within the legal deadline of the Law and KEC regulations, without being hampered by any major force, and just as these shipments were sent over time would have to arrive, even if they were sent over time. P ZAP has provided sufficient reasoning with which the Supreme Court of Kosovo agrees.

The Supreme Court, in all, acknowledges the actual status outlined by PZAP, as with evidence found in the subject's paperwork, the actual situation listed by PZAP is fully and reliable. The evidence on subject paperwork shows that these packages have arrived after the deadline is expired.

Considering that the PZAP, on the occasion of rejection of the appeal, has taken into account a host of circumstances highlighted as in the argument of the complaint, and has rightly applied material right, or Article 115 paragraph 1, 2 and 3, Article 119 paragraph 5, of the LZP, so the Supreme Court concludes that the complaint of political subject Vetevendosje (LVV) should be refused as unsubmitted to the reasons presented above, and in accordance with Article 118 of the Kosovo General Law, as decided on the verdict of this act.