Prishtina, January 18, 2025 – The NGO coalition Democracy in Action (DiA) held its first press conference to assess the first week of the election campaign, media coverage, hate speech, and expenditures on social media.
During its first week, the election campaign unfolded in a mostly calm atmosphere but with provocative discourse from political parties, increasing activity intensity day by day, and gatherings of various formats.
The Campaign in Numbers
In the first week, DiA monitored 160 activities of political entities across all municipalities in the country, including those with a Serb majority. Leading in the number of activities was LDK with 51, followed by PDK with 45, LVV with 28, and AAK with 19 activities. Other entities, such as the Lista për Familjen and those representing other communities, including Srpska Lista, IRDK, and SDU, also held activities.
Freedom of Assembly
Political entities were able to organize gatherings without restrictions. However, DiA observers reported that six activities were not pre-announced to the Municipal Election Commissions (MECs). Approximately 80% of the activities were organized in public venues such as sports halls, cultural centers, and schools, while the rest were held in private spaces like restaurants or other halls.
Citizen Participation in Activities
Almost half of the gatherings were medium-sized, with up to 200 participants. Smaller gatherings, with up to 50 participants, constituted 22% of the activities, while 15% were large gatherings with over 500 participants. A distinguishing feature of the campaign was the trend of one-way program presentations by political entities, without two-way communication with citizens.
Additionally, in three cases, organized participation of students was observed in Suhareka municipality—two activities organized by PDK and one by AAK.
Use of Proper and Non-Discriminatory Language
This week was characterized by a deterioration in the language and discourse used during the campaign. In a total of 25 monitored activities, cases of provocative or hate speech among parties and their candidates were reported. This was particularly prominent in activities of the ruling party. However, similar cases were also reported in activities of other parties, including LDK (10 cases), PDK (6 cases), and AAK (2 cases).
The Online Campaign
DiA has so far monitored a total of 679 parliamentary candidates, of whom 447 are men and 232 are women. During the first week, up to 50 cases were identified involving: i) Denigrating and hate speech, particularly in videos produced by political entities and shared on social media; ii) Hate speech and disparaging language by third parties, often appearing in comments on posts by parliamentary candidates; iii) False news, creating misinformation and spreading messages that jeopardize the integrity of the campaign.
Monitoring of 152 online portals revealed nearly 600,000 comments on social media, of which 6% contained hate speech. These reflect the use of hate speech in political communications, negatively affecting the public and democratic discourse in the country.
Women running for the 2025 parliamentary elections have faced hate speech in online spaces. Seven percent of social media comments were identified as hate speech. The most targeted candidates were:
Gender Equality and Inclusion
The participation of women remains significantly low, with minimal presence reported in about 60% of activities – only up to 10% of participants were women. Regarding active participation in the electoral race, only one-third of speeches (70 out of 230) were delivered by women.
Similarly, the low presence of women was also observed in the media. Out of 258 election reports featuring parliamentary candidates, only 14% included women. Television airtime for election reports was also significantly lower for women compared to men – only 12 minutes or 9% of total airtime was allocated to women.
Regarding the inclusion of persons with disabilities, they delivered speeches in only five campaign activities.
Political messaging
Education, healthcare, economy, infrastructure, and social welfare were the top five topics addressed in campaign speeches. During this week, Lëvizja Vetëvendosje focused its campaign on the northern region of the country (22 cases). On the other hand, two other parties – LDK and PDK – primarily addressed education, while AAK focused on education and the economy.
Political messages were mostly conveyed by party leaders and selected representatives, without giving all candidates from respective municipalities where the activities were held the opportunity to speak.
Freedom of Expression and Information
During the first week, parties and candidates were widely represented in the media, except for LVV, whose candidates continue to “boycott” TV programs and debates. Meanwhile, election reports were predominantly dominated by major parties, with 277 out of 345 monitored reports featuring these entities: PDK (73), LDK (71), the AAK/NISMA coalition (70), and LVV (63).
Regarding media coverage within political entities, most of the airtime was dedicated to candidates for prime minister and list leaders, totaling 213 minutes. Additionally, of the 345 broadcast reports, 313 provided coverage for prime ministerial candidates, with Lumir Abdixhiku leading, followed by Bedri Hamza, Albin Kurti, and Ramush Haradinaj.
Prevention of Misuse of Public Resources for Electoral Purposes
During the first week of the election campaign, the misuse of public resources for electoral purposes was evident in a total of 18 cases. In at least seven activities, the presence of official vehicles was observed – in two cases at the central level during activities held by the ruling party, and in five cases during activities organized by other parties (LDK and AAK), primarily in municipalities governed by these parties.
Additionally, in 11 other activities, public officials such as civil servants, educational staff, or healthcare personnel were observed participating during regular working hours.
Transparency and Campaign Financing
Although primarily organized in public venues, the activities of political entities included materials, products, and services with associated costs. The distribution of business cards (114 cases), brochures (49 cases), promotional materials (43 cases), beverages (35 cases), as well as services like sound systems (93 cases), professional video recording (87 cases), lighting, and lasers (37 cases) were among the products and services on which parties spent the most.
Additionally, in at least four cases, organized transportation of participants was observed, using buses and minibuses.
Facebook Sponsorship Costs: In the first week of the campaign, DiA analyzed the expenditures of political entities and their candidates on social media. According to this data, most parties in the race, along with 160 candidates, sponsored posts. The total amount spent on social media sponsorships during this week was approximately €25,000 for over 1,000 sponsored posts. Among them, the top spenders were: Bedri Hamza – over €3,100 on his profile; Lumir Abdixhiku – €3,000; the official LDK profile – €2,900; Memli Krasniqi – over €1,700; Ramush Haradinaj – €1,500; Opre Roma Kosova €1,415 and the official Lëvizja Vetëvendosje profile – €1,412. Among other candidates, the top spenders were: Krenar Xhaferi (LDK) – over €1,200; Egzon Kelmendi (AAK) €850; Aurora Berisha (PDK) – approximately €700; Isak Neziri (PDK) – €670; Ardian Olluri (LDK) – €660.
Institutional Neutrality
With the intensification of the campaign and electoral operations, the workload of institutions involved in the elections has also increased.
ECAP (Election Complaints and Appeals Panel) has so far reviewed and resolved 11 cases related to violations of the code of conduct during the campaign, as well as other issues involving electoral staff at the municipal level. PZAP has issued six fines totaling €51,000, mainly for the language used during the campaign and the misuse of public resources contrary to the law, while rejecting five complaints as unfounded. Of these six punitive decisions: The LDK was fined €34,000; AAK was fined €12,000; LVV was fined €3,000; and PDK was fined €2,000.
Concerning security, The police secured two-thirds of the campaign activities. Meanwhile, no incidents or cases of obstruction of the media or NGOs in monitoring the electoral process were reported.