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Vote manipulation in Kosovo/What has the recount shown so far?
2026-01-24 14:42:52 / KOSOVA
While the recount of votes from the December snap elections is continuing across Kosovo and has now reached the halfway point, suspicions and investigations into vote manipulation are simultaneously expanding to other parts of the country.
The Central Election Commission announced on Saturday that over 55 percent of votes in 2,557 polling stations across the country have been recounted.
The recount began on January 13, initially partially, after the commission found discrepancies in the votes for candidates for deputies of the Kosovo Assembly.
But, when discrepancies in the votes were confirmed and suspicions grew, law enforcement authorities began to take action.
What has the recount brought so far?
From the recount of votes in over half of the polling stations so far, around 80,000 candidate votes have resulted as incorrect and incorrectly counted at the Municipal Counting Centers, according to Eugen Cakolli from the non-governmental organization, the Democratic Institute of Kosovo.
"Of these, after the recount, 47,619 votes were removed from the candidates (because they had been added during the initial count), while 32,018 votes were added to the candidates after the recount (because they had been irregularly removed earlier)," Cakolli wrote on Facebook on Friday.
According to him, out of about 80,000 affected votes, approximately 40,000 belong to candidates from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK), about 15,000 to the ruling party Vetevendosje Movement (LVV), about 11,000 to the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and about 4,000 to the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK).
Over 80 percent of these votes come from the municipality of Prizren alone, while the rest from Malisheva and Podujeva (in the latter, only 10 percent of the votes were recounted), Cakolli added.
The recount so far has also brought action by law enforcement authorities in the country, as in addition to Prizren, they have expanded investigations to Ferizaj and Malisheva.
In recent days, prosecutors in Ferizaj and Gjakova authorized the Police to take all actions, including identifying responsible persons, collecting data, and securing evidence in Ferizaj and Malisheva, regarding suspicions of vote manipulation.
Authorities carried out an operation on Friday in Prizren, the municipality where the most voter fraud is suspected, detaining 109 suspects.
The Chief Prosecutor of the Basic Prosecution Office in Prizren, Petrit Kryeziu, said on Friday that those detained in the southern region of the country are mainly commissioners and among them are also family members of candidates for MPs.
They are suspected of falsifying election results, pressure and intimidation, and giving and receiving bribes.
According to Kryeziu, such vote manipulation could not have happened 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.
While most major party leaders had reacted little after suspicions of vote fraud surfaced weeks ago, Kosovo's acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti, also the leader of the ruling party, reacted on Saturday.
Kurti called for a comprehensive investigation and punishment for those suspected of vote manipulation within political parties.
Kurti – who had previously been criticized for his lack of reaction – said on Facebook on Saturday that “commissioners and individuals who, in a clandestine manner, have been involved in vote manipulation within political entities, harming colleagues and political entities, do not have amnesty.”
Earlier, PDK leader Bedri Hamza had described the recount as a "necessary and fair step" to protect the integrity of the electoral process.
The leaders of the LDK and AAK, Lumir Abdixhiku and Ramush Haradinaj, had previously also called for a full recount, emphasizing that only in this way could the legitimacy of the results be guaranteed.
Meanwhile, most of the parliamentary candidates who had the most votes taken away during the recount have denied any involvement in the abuse and have said they condemn this phenomenon.
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./ REL
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