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Life in Kosovo debates election day and its aftermath

19 11 2009  Life in Kosovo debated the events on and following the November 15 local elections.

The main questions asked included: What were the experiences the monitors observing the polling stations?

What lessons can be learned before the mayoral runoff in December?  
 
To discuss these issues and others related to them, host Jeta Xharra was joined in the studio by:  
 
Mimoza Kusari-Lila from the New Kosovo Alliance-Democratic League of Dardania coalition (AKR-LDD)  
Pal Lekaj from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK)
Hanefi Muharremi from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK)
Ramadan Muja from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK)
Ismet Kryeziu from ‘Democracy in Action’, a civil society coalition that monitors elections

At the beginning of the show, a series of reports from BIRN journalists who had observed the elections were shown. The journalists pointed out flaws in the election process and made some suggestions about how they could be avoided in future, especially the runoff elections in December.

Following these reports, Ismet Kryeziu was asked about the electoral irregularities encountered. His response was that some irregularities had been detected in voting lists and on conditional ballots, which had provided opportunities for manipulation.   

Another issue Kryeziu highlighted was the need for better education for voters. He said: “The number of invalid votes we encountered is worrying, and needs to be reduced in the future.”

When asked about whether any of the members of Democracy in Action had been threatened during the elections, Kryeziu said that no such reports had been received from any of their monitors.

Mimoza Kusari-Lila from the AKR-LDD coalition mentioned that there had been a total of 21 complaints made by different political parties in Gjakova.

She said that some of the voting boxes that had been labelled ‘suspicious’ due to complaints are being held by Kosovo’s police. Kusari-Lila said:

“I believe that the complaints will be taken seriously by the competent authorities because of the weight of the majority of complaints.” She also said that the Gjakova police had not acted appropriately during the elections, describing them as a “weak link” in the elections in that region.  

In response to a question from Xharra about why AKR and LDD had not sent more monitors to those areas known to have given rise to irregularities in the last elections, Kusari-Lila said that she had only recently become involved in politics recently.

She added that she had realised that the monitors assigned to these ‘suspicious areas’ were closely linked to the AAK only three days prior to the elections.

In response to Kusari–Lila’s comments, Pal Lekaj from AAK said that he was unimpressed and believed that he had been the clear winner of elections in Gjakova.

He added that the elections had proved that democracy in Kosovo has reached new heights,and that thecitizens of Gjakova had clearly shown their will on November 15.

Regarding some monitors’ allegations that they had received threats from AAK supporters, Lekaj said that no evidence to support such claims exists.  

In response to Kusari–Lila’s claim that over one hundred votes had been deemed ‘invalid’ in Novoselle because they belonged to AKR-LDD, Lekaj said that “if there is one invalid vote in Novoselle, I will no longer be the mayor of Gjakova”.

Lekaj went on to say that Kusari-Lila’s comments were vague attempts to justify her coalition’s “considerable spending in Gjakova”.  

Ramadan Muja from the PDK was of the opinion that Prizren municipality’s voters had showed a “great democratic spirit” on the day of the elections.

He was also pleased with the greater turnout in comparison to the 2007 elections. In response to allegations that armed PDK militants had been present at some voting stations in Prizren, Muja said that such claims were incorrect since militants were from the LDK, not the PDK.  

Hanefi Muharremi from the LDK claimed to have evidence of PDK vote manipulation in Prizren municipality, stressing that some polling stations had been subject to vote manipulation ever since 2000.  

More specifically, Muharremi said that such manipulation in Billush village had advanced so far that more votes had been registered than voters.

He added that complaints had been made to the Elections Complaints and Appeals Commission (ECAC). Muharremi was of the opinion that the LDK monitors in Prizren had been unable to complete their tasks properly due to threats from large crowds and PDK militants.  

Muharremi said: “I suggest that for the runoff, special police units be placed in these delicate regions where manipulation is more likely to occur.

Police were unable to deal with certain situations in some regions.”  He went on to add that protecting citizens’ votes is essential for a democratic country like Kosovo.  

Muja said that Muharremi’s allegations were controversial because the LDK had begun raising doubts about the regions in question even before the elections had begun.

To support his claims that the elections held in the region Muharremi had cast doubts upon had been fair and correct, Muja mentioned that the US ambassador for Kosovo, Christopher Dell, had awarded the elections in Tusuz (a village suspected of manipulation by LDK) 9.5 out of 10.

According to him, this proves the success of the region’s electoral process.  

As for the presence of party militants at polling stations, Muja said that the PDK discourages such activity. He added that these elections proved to be very successful since the citizens of Prizren municipality behaved very responsibly on election day, proving once again that “democracy prevails in Prizren”.  

Muharremi stressed that the PDK’s premature celebrations in Prizren had been unhelpful, as it had created confusion among citizens and may have put pressure on commissioners. He said: “Imagine what could have happened if we too had invited our supporters to go out and celebrate.”

In response to Xharra’s question about whether candidates would respect the ECAC’s decisions, both mayoral candidates for Prizren, Ramadan Muja and Hanefi Muharremi, responded positively.  

Kryeziu emphasised that Democracy in Action will make complaints to the ECAC only if monitors are able to testify about irregularities they reported in the official complaint record.

Kusari-Lila replied that she expected more from Democracy in Action, based on the significant number of alleged irregularities in Gjakova municipality.

“Civil society should play a more active role in the electoral process,” she concluded. From the other side, Lekaj said he was pleased with the monitoring of the elections.  

Muja told Xharra that he had been quite pleased with the work of civil society, media and other organisations in the monitoring of the elections.  

Xharra closed the show with an encouragement to Kosovo’s citizens to once again show their will and vote in the second round of elections.

   

Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. It is broadcast every Thursday, starting at 20:20.