In almost half of the polling stations that are supposed to undergo the vote recount process for candidates for deputies in the early parliamentary elections of December 28, this process has already been completed.
The recount of one-third of polling stations began on January 13, after discrepancies were observed in the ballots with votes for candidates within political entities.
The Central Election Commission has announced that the process has been completed in 19 municipalities and that it will now initially continue with the recount in Prizren and then with the other municipalities.
In Prizren, 172 out of 235 polling stations have been counted so far, and this municipality clearly leads in the number of ballots with errors.
However, even with so many recounted polling stations, the difference in votes for candidates within political parties is noticeable.
There have also been changes in the votes for candidates from non-majority parties. According to the votes recounted so far, the acting Minister of Regional Development, Fikrim Damken, from the Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo, may remain outside the Assembly.
Due to the difference in the number of votes, candidate Ergul Mazreku has now emerged ahead of him. Damka has had 68 votes removed so far, while Mazreku has had 15 added.
Since tens of thousands of ballots with errors have been found so far, a full recount has been mentioned as the only option by the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj.
The latter wrote on Facebook that "without a complete recount, the integrity of these elections is not ensured," adding that the Prosecutor's Office should launch investigations into possible manipulations.
Among the LDK MPs who, so far, have received more votes than they were entitled to, is Anton Quni.
He wrote on Facebook that this was done without his knowledge or will and called it a criminal operation that has "tarnished his personality and career."
The other LDK candidate, Driton Selmanaj, reacted similarly, to whom it has been revealed that 983 more votes than they were due were added during the counting at municipal centers.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo also reacted to these developments, saying that it is following them and that vote manipulation is unacceptable.
"The elimination of any doubt is in the interest of candidates, institutions and citizens. The Democratic Party of Kosovo awaits the official conclusions of the responsible bodies, including the Central Election Commission, with the belief that the truth and the will of the citizens will be reflected accurately and in accordance with the law," the PDK statement said.
Meanwhile, Eugen Cakolli, from the Democratic Institute of Kosovo, has called on Facebook for the Prosecution to launch investigations and criminal prosecutions for the manipulation of candidates' votes.
"The names of the commissioners for each counting table at the NCC are known. But these manipulations were not carried out by the commissioners themselves. Dozens and hundreds of distorted votes in a single polling station, and thousands at the municipal level – mainly for specific candidates and in their municipalities – are neither coincidence nor human error," he said.
Cakolli added that "the involvement of certain candidates in these schemes is very likely. Therefore, the investigation must inevitably include them as well."
When a little over 200 polling stations had been counted, Cakolli had calculated that the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) list had the most changes.
At municipal counting centers, each ballot goes through several checks: it is read aloud by a teller, displayed on a screen via camera, and recorded in the electronic system by another official, while a third person verifies the ballot.
However, the manipulation is said to take place at the stage of reading the votes for candidates. When a ballot belongs to a party, it also contains votes for several candidates. The teller can verbally change the number of the candidate voted for, replacing it with the number of another candidate.
Thus, the system registers a vote for the wrong candidate, even though the actual ballot shows something different. The number of votes per party does not change, only the number of votes for candidates within the same party changes.
Cakolli had said earlier in the week that the counting process was not accompanied by detailed checks of the ballots, thus enabling manipulation, and that this was also influenced by the fact that the counting was carried out during the holidays.
According to Çohu and Cakolli, such forms of abuse have been observed in almost every electoral process in Kosovo and that the solution to this problem would be technological scanning of ballots instead of traditional counting by officials.
What are the consequences?
Recently, the non-governmental organization Çohu published research showing that over 90 percent of cases of electoral manipulation end with suspended sentences or fines.
This means that if an official is proven to have manipulated votes during the count, he is unlikely to be punished with prison for it.
But the consequences may be greater for the institutions, as the recount, which is expected to last up to two weeks, may further delay the establishment of new institutions, at a delicate time for the institutions.
The new parliament must hurry to pass international financial agreements for the country, as well as elect a new president by March 4, before Vjosa Osmani's term ends in April.
These deadlines may become even more difficult to achieve if a full recount is decided - which, however, according to Cakolli, remains the best option now that it has been proven that there were many changes in votes during the counting in municipal centers.
During the week, CEC spokesperson Valmir Elezi repeated for REL the message of CEC chairman Kreshnik Radoniqi that if possible manipulations with the votes of candidates within political entities are observed after the recount, the commission will take the members of the counting teams to the competent bodies./ REL
