Share of parties' votes that did not pass the threshold, CEC shows who could benefit

Twenty-four subjects, coalitions or independent candidates -- who competed in the February 9th elections in Kosovo -- did not pass the 5 per cent election threshold.

Among them are four representing the Albanian majority community and in total- according to preliminary results . these number nearly 21 thousand votes, or 2 per cent. But what happens to these votes?

The Central Election Commission certified their results, but the votes do not distribute or go to any other party that has received more than 5 percent.

General Election Law Says 120 seats in the Kosovo Assembly are divided based on the total number of valid votes each has won political subject, among the political subjects representing the majority community, which have won at least five percent from the total number of valid votes in the Parliament elections and political subjects representing communities that are not majority.

In the Kosovo Assembly, 20 seats are guaranteed for communities not a majority of 10 for Serbs and others for non-Serb minorities.

CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi says this institution certified the results of each political subject or candidate that has participated in the election, even when they do not pass the threshold, until it adds that the law stipulates that the mandates for the Kosovo Assembly are only included in political subjects that have passed the electoral threshold.

The Central Election Commission certified the results for each political subject and certified candidates for voter turnout. So the CEC determines the results of the political subjects, including the number and percentage of votes won even if they don't pass the previous 5% threshold. Under the law, only political subjects who have passed the” election threshold are included in the division of mandates for the Kosovo Assembly.

Volnet Bugakku from the Kosovo Democratic Institute says the votes of political subjects who have not passed the election threshold have no significance in determining new seats in the Assembly.

“The votes of subjects that have not passed the threshold are not distributed to other subjects that have entered the Kosovo Parliament because the moment you pass the 5% threshold, with automatism you divide the partition formula in parliament. Someone has 5.5%, gets 7 seats, someone gets 25% maybe 30 deputies. This division of 100 countries is done for subjects who have passed the election threshold, not for those who have not passed the” election threshold, he says.

Legal Affairs Professor Mazlum Baraliu recalls that earlier it was a practice for the votes of political subjects who have not passed the 5% election threshold to be distributed to parties that have managed to be part of the Kosovo Assembly.

“Those that have not passed the electoral threshold, so parties, or independent candidates or political subjects... with preliminary law prior to this completion have been restored and gifts given according to the rotating system by the largest party, the second, the third political parties that have received mandates. But it has been declared that now those votes cannot be counted”, Baraliu says.

On February 9th, regular parliamentary elections were held in Kosovo, where more than 40% of citizens rightly voted.

According to current results, in these parliamentary elections the ruling party is the Vetevendosje Movement, in coalition with Gux and Alternative with 40.90 %, followed by the Democratic Party of Kosovo with 22.03 %, followed by the Democratic League of Kosovo with 17.64 %. The AAK Coalition- NISMA has received 7.46 % of the vote, while the Serbian List has received 4.60%. / KP