Two elections last year cost Kosovo around 13m euros

Even after these election processes were completed, the need for electoral reform was established. This is also required by the Central Election Commission (KQZ) itself, but for monitoring election processes they say there is a lack of political will for such reform to become a reality.

Central Election Commission spokesman Valmir Elezi has said that throughout the past year they have been committed to organising two electoral processes, which says the CEC has managed to fulfil its constitutional and legal duties for organising these elections.

“The CEC has managed to fulfil its constitutional and legal duties for organising these elections, despite the fact that we are among the rare institutions that have such a heavy burden on organising election processes within a year. [...] The Central Election Commission is preparing a detailed report on expenditures to organise local elections. Budget planning for organising these elections has been at 8.1m euros, but usually expenditures are under this planning, however, we should expect this final spending report. Meanwhile, some 5.6m euros planned for organising early elections for the Kosovo Assembly, which were held on February 14th 2021, have been spent around 4.7m euros. Usually, the cost of local elections is higher than the cost of parliamentary elections, one of the main reasons is that for local elections it is also envisioned to hold the second round of mayoral elections”, he has said.

The equity of the voters' list, family voting, assistance voting and invalid balloting are some of the problems which identify organisations that have monitored these election processes.

The solution, for these problems, according to them is the finalisation of electoral reform. The completion of electoral reform is also demanding the Central Election Commission itself, where the spokesman for this institution, Valmir Elez, says they are willing to make the contribution to finalise this reform.

The Central Election Commission has repeatedly stressed that Kosovo's Assembly must complete the electoral reform process. Of course, the CEC is ready to make its professional contribution to this electoral reform regarding all the issues it faced during the organisation of a large number of election processes during a decade”, Elesi has said.

Election reform, according to Arton Demhay from the organisation Geta, should include reviewing the Law for General Elections, the one for local elections and the Law for Funding Political Party.

The question of voting by the diaspora needs to be adjusted, we have seen that there are protracted voting procedures from the diaspora and that these procedures should be simplified and the opportunity given, especially when we talk about general elections, diaspora voting, whether in consulates or in embassies. [...] When we talk about funding political parties, I think that even there should be a clear explanation of how political parties can be financed and at the same time there should be more room for transparency, so to impose political parties to publish their financial mirrors at least twice a year. And even when we have election campaigns, immediately or during the election campaign, political parties publish their reports of where they are financed and how they spend the money they receive. These are some of the main problems related to both electoral processes and with the financing of political parties, which I think should address electoral reforms as soon as possible”, Demhasaj said.

Meanwhile, Eugen Cakoli from the Kosovo Democratic Institute has said that if there were political will, electoral reform would have been completed for 10 years now.

Chocolate has indicated that since two electoral processes have been completed, it is the right moment to launch a reform process, and in its context, it says it would have to be viewed as an option for partition in electoral areas.

If there were political will, electoral reform would have been completed by now 10 years when this process has been initiated. I consider that despite the fact that there may be no political will the necessity for addressing this problem should actually be the main element that would push political parties and not expect international demands for such a thing. [...] Since we have the position of political parties, especially the one in power that needs to change certain elements of the electoral system, I believe this should be used as the basis for opening the whole package that addresses electoral issues in order to advance the electoral process”, he said.

Kosovo has held extraordinary parliamentary elections even during 2019, whose organisation has cost around 5.4m euros. Meanwhile, parliamentary elections in 2017 cost 4m euros, as they have devoted the 2014 parliamentary elections.

The organisation of the 2017 local elections has cost around 7m euros to the state budget, the 2013 vote cost more than 5m euros, while the 2009 local elections cost over 6m euros. /kp