No party has yet submitted the candidate list for MPs, CEC on hold

Since the February 9th 2025 announcement of holding elections for the Kosovo Assembly, political parties have since begun to publish the name of any MP candidate.

But, though the deadline for handing over the candidate list for MPs has been extended for a month, so far no political party has handed over to the Central Election Commission (KQZ) list with the candidates' names.

The February 9th regular elections and long legal deadlines have created comfort for political parties to gradually draft the list with the candidates' names for MPs.

CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi has confirmed that no political party has so far handed over to this institution the list of candidates for MPs.

Until December 11th of this year, political subjects (political parties, coalitions, civic initiatives and independent candidates) are due to hand over to the Central Election Commission their demands for voter participation in the Kosovo Assembly, to be held on February 9, 2025. Also, during this period, political subjects must also hand over their lists with the names of candidates for MPs. This period started on September 1st, but you can confirm that so far we have not accepted any application from political subjects”, Elezie suggested.

According to the CEC, all candidates who want to participate in the Kosovo Assembly elections will undergo verification of various institutions in order to prove whether candidates competing for MPs are in line with Article 30 of the General Election Law.

Among the institutions the CEC will seek verification of candidates is the Kosovo Judiciary Council ( KDP) to prove whether any of the MPs' candidates have been sentenced in the last three years to a decision of a strong form for criminal acts, one or more effective prison terms, which will not be able to run.

Kosovo Judiciary Council is one of the institutions the CEC will seek to verify candidates. In Article 30 of the General Election Law, it is stressed that the candidate cannot be a person if “has been sentenced in the last three years with a firm form for criminal action, with one or more years in effective prison. Therefore, in order to implement this legal definition, we will ask the KDP to verify the candidate list if any of them are not in line with this legal restriction”, Elez said.

According to Article 30 of the Law for General Elections, a person cannot be certified as candidate for MP who has a special function on the basis of the Law in force for public officials; foreign service member and diplomatic representative; chairman or member of the CEC and the Municipal Election Commission; official of PZAP; through the court's decision, including PZAP's decision, has been denied the right to be a candidate; it has been sentenced in the last three years to a formal criminal offense, to one or more years in effective prison; it has failed to pay the fine imposed by PZAP, or KEC; or has failed to abide by any PZAP order. /EO/