The Supreme Court of Kosovo confirmed the exclusion of the leader of the largest political party, Vetevendosje, Albin Kurti from the electoral list for the snap elections set to be held on February 14.
The Supreme Court’s decision is based on Vetevendosje’s complaint after the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP) decided to confirm the Central Election Commission’s (CEC) decision to not certify the party’s list after five candidates who did not meet the criteria were not replaced.
ECAP decided that Albin Kurti, Albulena Haxhiu, Liburn Aliu, Bajram Mavriqi dhe Labinote Demi Murtezi will be excluded from the list, and ordered CEC to certify the other 105 out of 110 candidates.
But the Supreme Court decided that Liburn Aliu and Labinote Demi Murtezi should also be certified, making Vetevendosje’s electoral list be consisted of 107 candidates.
The situation is created following the ruling of the Constitutional Court that led to snap elections. It stipulated that no person convicted with a final decision by a Kosovo court in the last three years may be sworn in and serve as an MP.
In 2018, Kurti received a suspended sentence 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.
Former Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti was leading Vetevendosje’s election list as its candidate for prime minister.
Aliu and Demi Murtezi will be certified after the Supreme Court decided that ECAP has erroneously estimated the three- year deadline by calculating the day of the announcement of the elections on January 6, 2021 as the final day for this deadline set on the Law on Elections.
Snap parliamentary elections in Kosovo are set to be held on February 14, while the certification process will be concluded on January 31.
Read more:
Kosovo CEC will Only Certify Vetevendosje’s List Without its Leader
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Kosovo CEC will Review Decisions on Political Parties’ Complaints on Tuesday
