VV celebrates, opposition satisfied with growth

Election day, which passed without any incident, was overshadowed by the Central Election Commission's failure to publish the election results for political parties in real time. According to the results published by political parties and the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations, Democracy in Action, the Vetëvendosje Movement won the elections with 40.4 percent. The PDK came in second, the LDK third, and the AAK-Nisma coalition fourth.

The Vetëvendosje Movement is the winner of the February 9 elections with over 40 percent of the vote, according to the results published by the political parties, Democracy in Action and a projection published by “KOHA”. The Democratic Party came in second with over 20 percent, followed by the LDK with 18 percent and AAK-Nisma with 7.6 percent. The List for the Family did not pass the five percent threshold, managing to get only about 2 percent.  

Election Day, which passed without any incident and Kosovo was praised for its democratic culture and citizen participation in the elections, was overshadowed in the evening by the Central Electoral Commission's failure to publish the election results for political parties on time.

Although the new Election Law stated that the preliminary results of the parties would be published in record time, this did not happen.

For more than three hours, the CEC's online platform was out of order.

Initially, more than 23 percent of the votes were reported as counted, and then over 50 percent, but there were discrepancies between the total votes cast and those in certain municipalities.

Initial figures published by the CEC on the online platform sparked a huge backlash after they showed Vetëvendosje winning with over 55 percent. CEC officials later announced that they were experiencing technical problems, with the site experiencing system overload due to high interest.

The Chairman of the CEC, Kreshnik Radoniqi, said at a press conference before midnight that they will conduct an analysis of the system's failure later.

According to him, preliminary data for the parliamentary elections will be collected manually because the platform is not functioning.

He guaranteed that there would be no impact on the results. After being collected manually, he said that the data would be uploaded to the internet. But he did not give a timeframe for when this might happen.

"Everything was ready to transmit the preliminary results in the past, the application has not worked, we are not able to transmit the data through the platform. We apologize to all citizens. In these circumstances, we have reviewed the situation and will collect the data manually. We assure citizens that the failure to transmit the preliminary data through the electronic platform has no impact on the result. After we collect it, we will publish it, I don't know, at 3 or 4 in the morning," said Radoniqi.

He neither denied nor confirmed whether the prosecution had gone to the CEC to investigate problems with the system.

"Prosecutors have been at the CEC all day. The failure of the system was unexpected even for us. I want to assure everyone that the integrity of the vote is secure and the forms have been completed by the vote count," Radoniqi said. "The forms will be sent to us by the officials," he added.

Preliminary results do not include conditional votes, votes from people with special needs, and votes from outside Kosovo.

Following the announcement of a failure of the software for publishing online votes, President Vjosa Osmani has asked the Central Election Commission to protect the integrity of the electoral process.

"The President of the Republic of Kosovo congratulates the citizens who, even in this electoral process, showed a high democratic culture. She has expressed the expectation that the CEC will successfully complete the vote count by tonight. However, following the software failure, information confirmed by the CEC, the President has requested that the integrity of the electoral process be protected, ensuring that every vote is counted correctly," reads a statement by the President on the Presidency's Facebook page.

The statement continues by saying that the president will be in contact with the institutions until fully ensuring that the entire process, including the counting and publication of the results, is carried out in accordance with democratic standards and in accordance with the will of the citizens.

DNV declares LVV the winner

Preliminary results, a few hours after the polls closed, were also published by the "Democracy in Action" coalition of organizations.

According to the vote count in 98 percent of polling stations, this coalition said that the Vetëvendosje Movement won 40.4 percent, with a margin of error of 1.44 percent. The Democratic Party of Kosovo is second with 21.7 percent, with a margin of error of 1.45 percent. The Democratic League of Kosovo is third with 17.5 percent, with a margin of error of 0.97 percent. The AAK-Nisma coalition is fourth with 7.2 percent, with a margin of error of 0.82 percent and the Coalition for the Family has 2.4 percent.

Compared to the elections four years ago, LVV has dropped by 10 percent. According to DNV figures, the two opposition parties PDK and LDK have the largest increase. While in 2021, PDK had 17 percent, now it has 21.7. LDK from 12,7 percent in 2021, according to DNV, has now received 17,5 percent. AAK-Nisma has remained almost the same - from 7,1 percent in 2021 it has risen to 7.2 percent. As for the results from the parties of the largest non-majority community - Serbs, Serbian List is the winner with 5.4 percent.

According to the vote count by Democracy in Action, Nenad Rašić's "Za Slobodu Pravdu i Opstanak" party has managed to secure 0.6 percent of the votes at the national level, which is enough to secure one seat in the Kosovo Assembly, out of the 10 seats available to parties from the Serbian community.

So far, the Serbian List has consistently had all 10 seats reserved.

Meanwhile, the Time Projection, which was published after the polls closed, showed the Vetëvendosje Movement as the winning party with 42.3 percent, PDK second with 21.3 percent, LDK with 20.4 percent, and AAK-Nisma with 6.3 percent.

Kurti says they will form the Government

Despite the decline compared to the elections four years ago, fireworks were set off in front of the Vetëvendosje Movement offices in Pristina.

Vetëvendosje's candidate for prime minister, Albin Kurti, made two appearances after midnight where he declared victory, in coalition with the Guxo List and the Alternativa.

He declared to supporters in "Skënderbeu" Square in Pristina that the electoral process was democratic and peaceful, not mentioning Serbia.

Kurti said that there has never been more war than against this government, while he used the term "monster" against the opposition.

"There has never been more war than against this government. With oligarchs who give money without accounting, and with the opposition who make deals even with the devil against our government. Even though they have lost again, they will remain an opposition, because they do not want the best for either the state or the people," Kurti declared.

In his first appearance at the VV headquarters, Kurti said that the victory is a confirmation "of good, prosperous and democratic governance."

"Also, our winning coalition will form the new Kurti 3 government, and in this way we will continue the work that has been started. The citizens of Kosovo have proven their resistance against an unprecedented hybrid war that has been waged against our coalition. There have been irrational promises. Despite this, LVV won and we are the winning entity that will form the next government," he said.

PDK: Undeniable success with over 200 thousand votes

What the CEC did not do by publishing the results, the opposition parties did by presenting the data they collected from the field.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo has appeared pleased with the increase in these elections. The PDK campaign spokesman, Blerand Stavileci, said that the election results have shown that the majority of citizens have turned their backs on the Kurti government and are looking for a new executive. He considered the PDK's result as the second largest force in the country an undeniable success.

"We are in an unusual situation, where we as a party must report the votes, and not the CEC. PDK has achieved great results, it has been confirmed as the second largest force in the country with over 200 thousand votes. We thank the citizens who voted for PDK. This is an undeniable success for us and a strong message for us. The majority of citizens have turned their backs on this government, as they do not have a majority. The results show that citizens are looking for a new government," said Stavileci.

Regarding coalitions, Stavileci said that we should wait for the finalization of the results.

"In the coming days, with the finalization of the results, the PDK chairman and the PDK candidate will come up with positions on how to proceed," he added.

Abdixhiku: Significant growth, although not satisfactory

The leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Lumir Abdixhiku, despite the increase compared to the elections four years ago, said that it is not a satisfactory result. He added that he takes responsibility for the election result himself, while he will be accountable only to the LDK and its voters.

At a press conference late Sunday, Abdixhiku also announced the preliminary results and congratulated all parties on the electoral process.

"We are doing the work that the CEC should do. According to the count taken by LDK commissioners and observers, LDK received 158.954 votes or 18.1 percent, LVV received 347.543 votes or 39.8 percent, PDK received 190.363 votes or 21.8 percent, AAK-Nisma received 66.635 votes or 7.6 percent," he said at a press conference.

He added that they expect to have around 30-35 thousand votes from the diaspora and will bring the result to around 190 thousand votes.

"Although we have significant growth, it is not a satisfactory result. If the people have not seen me (as prime minister) this time, I am happy to be part of the next opposition in the Kosovo Assembly," Abdixhiku said.

Haradinaj calls for the opposition to form the government

The leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ramush Haradinaj, said that the opposition won these elections, expressing that he "looks forward to cooperating on the formation of the government."

He told the media that he believes that AAK has a double-digit result in these parliamentary elections.

"We are confident that we have a double-digit result. I believe that we will confirm this. What makes me happy is the fact that the opposition has won these elections. I wish the opposition victory and I look forward to cooperating on the creation of an opposition government," said Haradinaj.

Haradinaj has declared that he will not form a coalition with the Vetevendosje Movement.

"No, I told you, we are happy that the opportunity has been created to form an opposition government and we will cooperate with the opposition parties," he said.

And the leader of the Social Democratic Initiative, Fatmir Limaj, has declared victory in Malisheva.

In a Facebook post, Limaj wrote that in his hometown they won over 40 percent of the votes.

"Congratulations to Malisheva for the big victory with over 40% of the votes, based on the initial results. I am proud of my hometown, with my fellow countrymen, who today proved once again that they are an example of a citizenship that is not deceived, but, on the contrary, they give support to people who work and do good deeds for Malisheva and all of Kosovo. We won convincingly in Malisheva, because Malisheva is governed by the Social Democratic INISTA", Limaj wrote.

In these elections, Nisma competed in coalition with AAK.

Voter turnout 40.59 percent, citizens expect development and prosperity

As for the participation of citizens in the elections, it was 40.59 percent, out of 1 million 970 thousand 944 citizens with the right to vote, 799 thousand 954 citizens exercised this right. The highest turnout was recorded in Pristina with 55.68 percent of the participation. Out of 212 thousand 515 citizens with the right to vote, 118 thousand 321 voted. According to the CEC figures, the lowest turnout was in North Mitrovica with only 5.30 percent.

Sunday's voting process for Kosovo's parliamentary elections took place calmly and without major incidents.

Citizens demanded that the new Government focus on economic development and improving welfare.

"We expect a better future. Hopes are there," said Avdyl Deva from Gjakova.

"I believe so, we expect something better. To have a workplace, a factory in general, a workplace. Where there is a workplace, I believe that everything goes well," said Diogard Hajdari.

"Ishalla is getting better, better. Whoever wins, whatever we do, we wish the winner well. A little bit for businesses to help us, a little bit. Give us lower loans to develop and employ more people. That's what's most valuable to us, businesses," said Zef Demaj, a baker.

Sunday's elections were the first to be held with some changes to the process after the adoption of the Law on General Elections. Among other things, citizens were able to choose from 10 candidates for deputies, unlike 5 in the previous elections.

There was no option for conditional voting at each polling station, but only one within a municipality.

There were cameras installed at polling stations and even at counting centers.

The other change concerns the preliminary results, which were said to be expected to be published in record time for political parties. After the closing of voting at 19 p.m., only the part of the ballots where citizens voted for political entities was counted at polling stations.

The next day, unlike in previous elections, the Municipal Counting Centers will begin counting the remaining part of the ballots, namely the votes of the candidates for deputies.

Meanwhile, Saturday was voting day in Kosovo's diplomatic missions, as this was made possible by new legal changes. 43 polling stations were open in the missions.

Since the war, Sunday's elections are the first to be held within the regular constitutional deadline, as the previous ones were premature.