PDK's Gashi: Local elections are being violated with the knowledge of the Government

Less than an hour before the report on the situation regarding the budget for organizing local elections, the meeting of the Central Election Commission was canceled. The CEC did not provide details about the cancellation, while one of the members of the Commission said that it was postponed because the Secretariat has not yet received a response from the Government regarding the additional budget. And this action, according to the PDK member of the CEC, affects the organization of the process

The lack of a response from the Government on whether or not to approve the additional budget of 6.5 million euros for the organization of the local elections on October 12th led to the cancellation of the meeting of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) on Wednesday.

Shortly before its start, the CEC announced that the meeting had been postponed indefinitely, without providing further details.

At this meeting, the acting director of the CEC Secretariat, Besnik Buzhala, was supposed to report, among other things, on the situation created due to the non-approval of the additional budget.

CEC member from the Democratic Party (PDK), Ilir Gashi, emphasized that Buzhala planned to present the plan for the redistribution of existing budgetary funds.

"Today's CEC meeting, which was expected to address this concern, was postponed just two hours before it was to be held, due to the lack of a response from the Government. This clearly shows that the organization of the elections is being knowingly violated by the Government of Kosovo, while the responsibility is being unfairly placed on the CEC," he stressed.

Gashi also said that ignoring the request for an additional budget is jeopardizing the organization of the elections and public trust in the upcoming electoral process.

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KOHA reported on Monday that after the meeting, in which reporting was requested, the CEC Secretariat authorized the implementation of priority actions, in the absence of approval of the requested budget.

In the announcement, which the Acting Director of the Secretariat forwarded to the President and members of the CEC, it was confirmed that the budget available to the Commission is insufficient for the development of several electoral activities.

The Central Election Commission has planned that the organization of the local elections on October 12 will cost around 16 million euros, of which 9.6 million are available from the budget allocated for this year.