Kosovo votes

Ballot papers, boxes and voting booths were distributed on Saturday by the Counting and Registration Center in Fushë-Kosovo to 38 municipalities of Kosovo, in the framework of preparations for the early parliamentary elections on December 28. 1 million 999 thousand 24 citizens have the right to vote on this day.

Around two million citizens of Kosovo will have the opportunity to vote on Sunday, in the snap parliamentary elections that were announced after the legislature that emerged from the February 9 elections did not approve either of the two government cabinets that were proposed.

On Saturday morning, teams from the Central Election Commission (CEC) distributed election materials, including ballots, to 38 municipalities in Kosovo. As of 7:00 AM, 1 million 999 thousand 24 citizens are eligible to go to the polls to elect the tenth legislature.

CEC spokesperson, Valmir Elezi, said that all preparations have been made so that the voting process can begin on time.

"The number of voting centers that will open on December 28 is 948, of which 910 for regular voting with 2,557 polling stations. Also, 38 voting centers with a total of 57 polling stations will be opened to enable conditional voting," Elezi said.

For Sunday's elections, 24 political entities with 1,180 candidates for deputies are competing. Of these, 8 political entities are Albanians with 624 candidates aiming for 100 seats in the Assembly, while the rest are entities from the communities competing for the 20 guaranteed seats.

also Elections 2026 June 7, 2026 Kosovo votes... again

The February and December elections will be organized in accordance with legal changes, according to which political entities have the right to campaign until 7:00 a.m., when polling stations open. The changes require that after the ballot boxes close at 19:00 p.m., the counting of votes at polling stations will be done only for parties, while for candidates for deputies the procedure will take place from Monday.

Spokesperson Elezi announced that the publication of preliminary results in real time will begin in the first hour after voting ends.

"The CEC has made preparations to publish the preliminary results of political entities from the elections for the Assembly of Kosovo on December 28. The results from the first polling stations will begin to be published starting before 20:00 and they will be updated polling station by polling station," he said. "So, within a short time after the ballots of a polling station are counted, the data will be published on the results platform."

In the February 9 elections, the platform for publishing results in real time failed. CEC officials said there was external interference in the system.

But, in the fall, in the local elections and in the run-off that followed, the platform functioned and within the first hour after the voting closed, the results began to be published.

In addition to the results, the CEC will also publish voter turnout data at five different times: 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00 and 19:00.

The Chairman of the CEC, Kreshnik Radoniqi, has appealed to all members of municipal election commissions and polling station councils to be up to the task, to respect the law and the CEC's election rules.

"We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, a day where we must offer citizens the right to vote, so we hope that everyone is up to the task and respects the rules and the law," said Radoniqi, at the CEC conference, organized in the evening hours.

Other institutions have also said that all actions have been taken to guarantee a fair voting process.

The police have drafted and are implementing the operational order for election day, and the day before, two coordination meetings were held at the premises of the General Directorate of Police regarding the planning, implementation and coordination of this order.

The Director General of Police, Gazmend Hoxha, has requested supervision from all regional and central managers and has given the order for the police to carry out this activity with the highest professionalism and integrity.

The police have pledged that, in cooperation with local and international institutions, they will implement their duties and responsibilities in order to guarantee the free and democratic exercise of the right to vote for all citizens. This institution has encouraged citizens to cooperate and report any suspected cases or illegal actions related to security and the electoral process.

The Prosecutor's Office has also made a similar appeal.

The State Prosecutor's Office has invited citizens, political entities, institutions and various organizations to denounce any case of suspected voter abuse or manipulation, in any form and by anyone.

also Elections 2025 27 dhj 2025 Kosovo ready for new elections

The announcement by this institution stated that all preparations have been completed with the aim of protecting the free vote of citizens and guaranteeing the integrity of the electoral process.

This office has announced that around 100 state prosecutors and prosecutorial system officials will be engaged on Sunday.

"They will be distributed throughout the territory of the Republic of Kosovo and will remain in charge until the full completion of the electoral process, with the aim of handling and prosecuting any irregularities or possible legal violations that may occur during the elections," the prosecution body announced.

The conduct of this electoral process will also be monitored by local and international observers. On Saturday evening, observers from Albania were also welcomed at the CEC offices. In the capacity of observers of these elections, in addition to non-governmental and several other international organizations, the Council of Europe is also accredited with 23 observers.

The election was preceded by an 11-day campaign. The non-governmental organization group Democracy in Action (DnV) assessed that the campaign was competitive, but focused on leaders, and had a low level of civic enthusiasm.

At a press conference on the last day of the campaign, Ismet Kryeziu, head of the DnV, said that the race was calm and without serious incidents.

However, according to DnV, the observation has shown several trends and challenges that have directly impacted the quality of the campaign.

"Citizen participation in campaign activities has fluctuated significantly between political entities and organized forms of meetings, from hundreds of participants to over 1000 participants. The types of activities have been combined with medium participation and wide participation in the presentation of lists, and have been developed mainly in closed environments. The scope of activities has shown a concentration of entities in urban centers and larger municipalities with electoral weight, while smaller municipalities have been less exposed," the DnV statement states.

This group of organizations has also observed personalization and centralization of campaigns.

"Party leaders, or candidates for prime minister, have dominated almost all activities, while candidates for deputies and other party structures have had a secondary role. Although there have been meetings and organizations of candidates without the presence of the leader, these meetings have mainly been of the nature of small meetings. This personalization of the campaign towards the leader has limited the opportunities and programmatic presentations by the candidates," was another finding.

According to DnV, the campaign has focused mainly on economic, social and security issues. The topics have been employment, wages, social welfare, education, health, infrastructure and NATO membership. These topics have dominated the public messages of political entities and have been used as key elements for mobilizing the electorate.

According to DnV, the use of offensive and discriminatory language has been much less pronounced in this campaign.

On Sunday, the DnV will observe the electoral process, with 550 field observers who will report throughout the day on the progress of voting and vote counting, while 50 operators at the Call Center will process the data digitally.

also Arberi December 9, 2025 Kosovo votes

But, for election day, a concern has been expressed in the CEC – 888 voting centers out of 948 that will be open on Sunday may face power outages on election day. And, representatives of KEDS, after meeting with those of the CEC, have pledged that they will ensure conditions for a stable power supply and said that for this purpose teams will be engaged in each voting center.

As part of the legal changes for elections, it has been requested that polling stations and counting centers have cameras installed.