Elez: Candidates for MPs to undergo verification by various institutions

By verification, the Central Election Commission (KQZ) will prove whether the candidates competing for MPs are in line with the Law on General Elections and Article 30.

According to CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi, the CEC will also address the Kosovo Judiciary Council to verify whether any of the MPs' candidates have been sentenced in the last three years with a firm form for criminal work, with 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 Law for General Elections, 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.

Elez has also said that verifying candidates before the certificate is a legal requirement and that this process will take place in co-operation with state institutions such as KDR, PZAP, MPB and other institutions depending on the nature of the verification required by law.

With the aim of implementing this article, The CEC, through the Office for Recording, Certificate and Financial Control of Political Subjects, will send the letter to these institutions to verify, to see if any of the candidates cannot be certified as a candidate for participation in the election...201 CEC will address various institutions, such as: The Kosovo Judiciary Council, the Electoral Panel for Anxiety and Parashtre, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other institutions depending on the nature of verification required by law”, has added Elesi.

By December 11th of this year, political parties must hand over their demands for a certificate of participation in the Kosovo Assembly elections to the CEC.

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 deputies”, Elezi has said.

According to Article 30 of the General Election Law, a person cannot be certified as a candidate for MP who has a special function based on 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 the CEC; or has failed to abide by any PZAP order. /kp/