Over 8.7m euros scheduled for February 9th parliamentary elections

The Kosovo Assembly elections, which will be held on February 9th 2025, are expected to cost the state budget over 8.7m euros.

Thus has made known to KosovaPress CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi, who has shown that this is only budgetary planning and that the final cost will be known only after the end of next year's parliamentary elections.

The “Budget planned by the Central Election Commission for the purpose of organising the Kosovo Assembly elections, which will be held on February 9th 2025, is worth 8,709,317 euros. This is only budgetary planning, which means that to know exactly what the organisation of these elections will cost must wait for its outcome and all other procedures. Then we'll have a final report and we'll know exactly how much of the planned means are spent. According to experience from past election processes, usually the final cost is lower than was planned”, Elez said.

According to him, most of the tools planned are used to pay off election troops, which engage during the election process and after it.

“From the overall amount of the planned budget, most of it is earmarked for personnel and election troops to engage. Only during this process are more than 23 thousand people planned, most of whom will be engaged as members of the Municipal Election Commissions, members of the Local Councils and members of counting at the Municipal Count Centre”, he said.

According to the CEC, the new Law on General Elections that was passed by the Assembly of Kosovo following the completion of electoral reform in the summer of 1923 has expanded the responsibilities of the CEC, and therefore this is reflected in the planned cost. The cost will also affect the regular period in the election organisation, which began in mid-August of this year and is expected to end before next year's spring.

Of course, the new Law on General Elections has expanded the responsibilities of the CEC in organising the election process, and this is reflected in the planned cost. For the first time in an election process, we will have the functioning of 38 Municipal Counting Centres, which will be placed mainly in sports gyms and in which the number of votes of candidates for MPs will be made. The functioning of these QKNs is an additional cost because the ongoing process should be fully transparent, and in this direction the security of cameras, monitors, computers, scanners and other surveillance devices are needed. Of course, there are other issues that affect the planning of the total cost”, Elez indicated.

The last parliamentary elections in Kosovo were held on February 14th, 2021, and which were organised within a short period of time because they were extraordinary.

According to CEC data, these elections cost Kosovo's budget 4m and 469 thousand and 764 euros. Planning for the cost of this election has been at 5m 578 thousand and 712 euros.