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Local election runoff in Kosovo, the Prosecution orders a recount of votes in South Mitrovica!

2025-11-11 16:44:31 / KOSOVA ALFA PRESS

Local election runoff in Kosovo, the Prosecution orders a recount of votes in

The Basic Prosecution Office in Mitrovica ordered the Municipal Election Commission on Tuesday to recount the votes from the November 9 runoff at the Municipal Center in South Mitrovica, following reports of irregularities.

The prosecution said it made the decision after the Slovenian company CETIS took responsibility for an error in the printing of ballots.

She said the company "has explained that the counting problem occurred exclusively in one of the four color printer heads/plates responsible for printing the polling station number, and that they take responsibility for this error, which under normal circumstances would be almost impossible to occur."

The prosecution said it has assigned two police investigators to observe the recount process "to preserve the integrity of the ballot counting process," Radio Free Europe reports.

Meanwhile, the Kosovo Police Inspectorate said it has conducted an investigation into allegations that police officers had undertaken investigative actions at the Municipal Counting Center without the prosecutor's authorization.

The initial investigation found, according to the announcement, that the police officers who responded and entered the center ignored some of the procedures foreseen in the police operational plan for this electoral process.

"IPK will also undertake other actions in full coordination with the State Prosecutor's Office, including consultations with the Central Election Commission to clarify all the circumstances of this case," the announcement states.

The prosecution initially ordered a halt to the vote counting in the runoff race for South Mitrovica, following reported irregularities.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Kosovo later clarified that this was a technical error by the Slovenian company that printed the ballots.

The CEC claimed that in some of the ballot papers for South Mitrovica and Gjakova, there was an error in printing the polling station code.

Later on Tuesday, the CEC announced that it had received an official clarification from the responsible company, CETIS, regarding several errors identified in several ballots in South Mitrovica and Gjakova.

The CEC was told that the company had conducted a full investigation and that during the process it was understood that "the problem occurred only in one of the four printer heads that prints the polling station number, while the control system only monitors the serial number (QR code), so the error was not detected during printing."

"CETIS emphasizes that it takes full responsibility for this technical error, underlining that the ballots contain numerous security elements that make it impossible to forge or copy them. The company expresses deep regret for the incident and confirms that it remains at the full disposal of the CEC for any assistance in the investigation and verification of the ballots to clarify the circumstances of the case," the company's response said, among other things.

The CEC said it notified the State Prosecutor's Office of this response.

Suspicions of vote manipulation were raised by officials of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which, according to initial results, lost the mayoral race in South Mitrovica with its candidate, Arian Tahiri, against Faton Peci from the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV).

PDK's organizational secretary, Betim Gjoshi, said in a Facebook post that PDK will complain about this case to the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP).

Meanwhile, the acting Minister of Finance, Hekuran Murati, said that with the doubts raised, the PDK is trying to justify its failure.

"When PDK is now shouting 'catch the thief', this accusation is actually a confession of their sin, just like a sinner confessing the sins he has committed," wrote Murat of LVV on Facebook.

The result of the runoff in South Mitrovica resulted in Pec winning with 53.47% of the vote, while Tahiri received 46.53% of the vote, with a difference of 2,315 votes.

Before doubts arose regarding the votes in the runoff for South Mitrovica, the PDK candidate had accepted the election results and congratulated his opponent from the LVV on his victory.

 

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