The Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP) will decide on Tuesday on the complaints it received from Kosovo political parties, following the non-certification by the Central Election Commission (CEC).
“The deadline for reviewing and deciding on these appeals is 72 hours from the moment of submission of these appeals by the parties to the ECAP, which means that decisions will be taken until tomorrow, January 26, 2021,” the ECAP announcement reads.
On the other hand, the Central Election Commission says that it will act in accordance with the decisions of the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel and the Supreme Court, regarding the complaints of political entities for non-certification of their list of candidates.
“The CEC is waiting for the review and the decision of the ECAP regarding the complaints which have been submitted to this institution. As we have announced before, the CEC will act in accordance with the decisions of the ECAP and the Supreme Court,” Valmir Elezi, CEC’s spokesperson told the news agency Kosova Press.
CEC did not certify electoral lists of Vetevendosje, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), and the Social Democratic Initiative (NISMA).
After verification by competent institutions which checked if the candidates fulfilled the criteria to run for elections, the Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC) said 47 of them were not in accordance with Article 29 of the Law on General Elections or were convicted with a final decision by a Kosovo court in the last three years.
Names of these 47 candidates banned from running have not been made public yet, but sources from Vetevendosje confirmed for Exit News that their leader, Albin Kurti is among them.
During the CEC meeting which lasted for hours, the representative of Vetevendosje, Sami Kurteshi said that “the attempt to ban certain parties and candidates from running in the February 14 elections is clearly visible, and this has to do with the name of Albin Kurti”.
In 2018, Kurti was convicted for throwing tear gas in Parliament in protest against border demarcation with Montenegro. Vetevendosje claimed that Kosovo lost territory. They protested in the same way against the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities.
Electoral lists were not certified as parties did not replace the names of candidates who were listed by KJC as those who did not meet the criteria to run on elections.
