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23 suspects of vote manipulation receive one month in detention, recount reveals over 80 thousand incorrect votes
2026-01-25 12:16:07 / KOSOVA
The Basic Court of Prizren has ordered a month of detention for 23 suspects in connection with allegations of vote manipulation in the December early parliamentary elections.
They are suspected of a number of criminal offenses related to the December 28 elections, including criminal offenses against the right to vote, intimidation, accepting bribes and giving bribes, the court said in a statement on Sunday.
The suspects, arrested on Friday during a wide-ranging operation in the eastern region of the country, are commissioners and observers who took part in the vote count.
The court said that 21 of the 23 suspects – identified only by the initials O.Sh., VB, A:K., BB, AH:, AK, Gj.Sh., LK, B.Xh., EG, IP, IH, A:D., and B:B., D.Sh., JH, SB:, AL, QK, AV, MJ – are each suspected of falsifying the voting results.
Meanwhile, another suspect, with the initials AV, is suspected of falsifying voting results and accepting bribes. An observer is suspected of threatening and giving bribes.
The decision against them comes after a large-scale operation that authorities carried out in Prizren on Friday, where they arrested 109 suspects for vote manipulation in the elections for the Kosovo Assembly.
Last week, the Central Election Commission was forced to launch a full recount of votes after finding discrepancies in the votes for parliamentary candidates.
With the recount completed in almost half of the polling stations, it turns out that about 80,000 votes are incorrect, according to Eugen Cakolli of the non-governmental organization, the Democratic Institute of Kosovo.
The Chief Prosecutor of the Basic Prosecution Office in Prizren, Petrit Kryeziu, said on Friday that among those arrested in Prizren were also family members of candidates for MPs.
According to him, such manipulation could not have occurred without a compromise between the commissioners of the four largest political parties.
"We are talking about the municipality of Prizren, where no less than 40,497 votes were added and no less than 27,520 votes were removed. So, the total difference in abuses is 68,017 votes," said Kryeziu.
Kosovo's acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who is also the leader of the ruling Vetevendosje Movement, called on Saturday for a comprehensive investigation and punishment for those suspected of vote manipulation within political parties.
"Commissioners and individuals who have clandestinely engaged in vote manipulation within political entities, harming colleagues and political entities, have no amnesty," Kurti wrote on Facebook.
While the recount of early election votes is continuing throughout Kosovo and has already reached the halfway point, suspicions and investigations of vote manipulation are simultaneously expanding to other parts of the country.
After Prizren, authorities are now conducting investigations in Ferizaj and Malisheva.
In Kosovo, vote manipulation is a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment.
However, recently the non-governmental organization, ÇOHU, published research that showed that over 90 percent of cases of electoral manipulation end with suspended sentences or fines.
Most of the parliamentary candidates who had the most votes removed during the recount have denied any involvement in the abuse and have said they condemn this phenomenon. /REL
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