Eight mayoral candidates in the October 12 local elections have problems with the law, according to a report by the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI) on the integrity of candidates.
According to the report, three mayoral candidates who have problems with the law are candidates from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, while one is from the Vetevendosje Movement. Three candidates are from the civic initiatives Bashkimi Demokratika i Prizrenit, Srpska Narodna Sloga and Iniciativa Demokracia, and one is an independent candidate.
According to the data, out of 206 candidates, this means that 3.9 percent of them have problems with the law. The KLI has identified four candidates who have active indictments. They have been convicted by first instance courts, one is in retrial, two have not yet been decided, and another case is being handled by the Appeals Court.
This list includes Erden Atiq, the Vetëvendosje Movement candidate for North Mitrovica. He was convicted in the first instance for "destruction, damage or removal of public installations". The case is in the Court of Appeal, while the indictment was filed against him in 2017.
Sami Lushtaku of PDK, candidate for mayor of Skenderaj, was also convicted in the first instance. The case is under retrial. The offense for which he was convicted is “organized crime related to the criminal offense of obstruction of approval or official procedure”. The indictment was filed in 2016. Lushtaku is also included in the list of candidates with a final decision.
Also convicted in the first instance, but whose verdicts have not yet been drawn up, are Shukri Buja, PDK candidate for Lipjan, and Shkumbin Demalija of the Democracy Initiative in Deçan. Both were convicted of "abuse of official position or authority" in the indictment filed in 2018.
Meanwhile, there are five candidates who have had final criminal convictions. This includes Sami Lushtaku, convicted of intimidation in 2021. He was fined 2000 euros. He was also convicted in 2019 and 2020 of fines of 1700 euros and 12 euros for "unauthorized ownership, control, or possession of weapons" and "escape of a person deprived of liberty."
The list also includes Arbër Emini as an independent candidate for Kllokot, who was sentenced in 2023 to a fine of 200 euros and 9 months of suspended imprisonment for "fraud".
PDK's Sokol Bashota, candidate for mayor of Klina, was convicted in 2021 for "failure to report or false reporting of assets, income, gifts, other material benefits or financial obligations."
Srecko Sparić of the Srpska Narodna Sloga in Kllokot was sentenced in 2017 for "abuse of official position or authority" to 10 months of suspended imprisonment.
Zafir Berisha of the Democratic Union of Prizren was sentenced to 6 months in prison, which was replaced with a fine of 1500 euros, in 2014 for “assaulting an official person.” He was also sentenced to a fine of 140 euros for “removing or damaging official seals or signs” a year later.
So candidates who have problems with the law are running in seven municipalities. Candidates for mayor in the October 12, 2025 elections who have problems with the law have been charged in 12 cases, for a total of 10 different criminal offenses.
"IKD has consistently advocated for the decriminalization of politics, in the sense that persons who have problems with the law, even if they do not have specific legal prohibitions, should not be part of electoral lists and holders of certain public functions. Problems with the law consist either in active indictments or final convictions. As has been consistently emphasized, the request for persons who have problems with the law not to run does not imply a violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence, but rather aims to send a positive message, in such a way that as long as the problems with the law do not end, political parties do not run such persons," the IKL statement states.
Compared to the elections four years ago, there has been progress in terms of the total number of candidates with problems with the law, the number of candidates with active indictments and the number of municipalities in which candidates with problems with the law are running. Progress is also observed in the number of political parties that include candidates for mayor on their lists. In 2021, four (4) political parties were identified, while in the 2025 local elections, two (2) political parties were identified. However, in these elections, three (3) civic initiatives were also identified that presented candidates with problems with the law, while another candidate is an independent, who are formally treated as political entities.
On the other hand, IKL evidences a regression in terms of the number of candidates with final convictions.
