The coalition of NGOs “Democracy in Action” (DiA) today held its conference on monitoring the election campaign, monitoring of media during the election campaign, and DiA complaints submitted before ECAP, with regard to political party irregularities during campaign.
Albert Krasniqi from DiA, announced that DiA has submitted 51 complaints to ECAP with regard to violations of the Law on General Elections based on field observations. “So far, ECAP rendered 11 decisions and imposed fines against political entities amounting to 16,700 Euros for violation of rules. Namely, the PAN (PDK-AAK-Nisma) coalition was fined with 7500 Euros for five infringements, the LAA (LDK-AKR-Alternative) coalition was fined with 2500 Euros for 2 infringements committed, LVV was fined with 1200 Euros for 1 case, and KDTP (Turkish Party) was fined with 5500 Euros for 3 cases,”.
Election campaign activities monitored country-wide
Krasniqi informed that according to reports, during the 6 days of the election campaign, long-term observers have monitored 394 political entities activities country-wide, whereby most of them were rallies.
Citizen participation in rallies
Most of election activities monitored by DiA were meetings with 50 to 500 participants, while 29 of them were rallies with over 1000 participants, stated Krasniqi.
Use of public resources
He stated that the use of public resources was noted in 64 out of 394 electoral activities monitored by DiA, whereby use of official vehicles was noticed, civil servants' participation and the use of other public resources.
According to political entities:
The PAN (PDK-AAK-NISMA) coalition has used 19 official vehicles, 21 civil servants and 2 other cases of public resources utilization. The LAA (LDK-AKR-Alternativa) coalition used 17 official vehicles, 7 civil servants and in 1 case used other public resources. LVV used 1 official vehicle and in 1 case another public resource. The Serbian List used 4 civil servants.
Hate speech
Furthermore, he spoke on the hate speech, stating that in 23 out of 394 activities was reported that political subjects used hate speech and only 2 cases were reported where the situation during the electoral activity was tense.
By political entities
In the electoral activities organized by the PAN (PDK-AAK-NISMA) Coalition, the DiA observers reported that in 8 cases messages transmitted during the activity contained hate speech. While in monitored activities of LAA (LDK-AKR-Alternative) Coalition was reported that hate speech was used in 8 cases. LVV used hate speech messages in 5 cases.
Women's participation
With regard to women participation in activities conducted during the election campaign, Krasniqi stated that there was an average of 16%. Gender-wise, 1334 men (80%) and 327 women (namely 20%) spoke in political entities activities. Based on the report from previous days, there is a decrease of 1% in the total number of women speakers in political entities electoral activities.
By political entities
In activities of PAN (PDK-AAK-Nisma) coalition monitored by DiA, 80% of the speakers were men and 20% of speakers were women. In the activities of LAA (LDK-AKR-Alternative) coalition monitored by DiA, 82% of the speakers were men, while 18% were women.
While in LVV activities, 72% of speakers were men while 28% of speakers were women. Moreover, in the activities of the Serbian List (Lista Srspka), 94% of speakers were men while only 6% of speakers were women.
Inclusion of children in the campaign
Krasniqi stated that in 123 out of 394 electoral campaign activities children were present. In total, the number of children who attended activities conducted in the 6 days of the electoral campaign amounted to approximately 2,100 children. In 10 activities was noted the use of children in an organized manner, who carried propaganda material of political parties competing in elections.
By political entities
Out of 170 monitored electoral activities of PAN (PDK-AAK-Nisma) Coalition, children presence was reported in 50 of them. In total the number of children present was reported to have been 966, and in 4 cases their presence was organized.
Out of 102 monitored election activities of LAA (LDK-AKR-Alternative) Coalition, children presence was reported in 39 activities. In total the number of children present was reported to have been 527 and in 4 cases their presence was organized.
In 72 monitored LVV activities, children presence was reported in 23 activities. In total, the number of children present was reported to have been 383 and in 1 case their presence was organized.
Accessibility of persons with disabilities
Out of 394 election activities monitored by DiA, 74 were attended by persons with disabilities, in total there were around 190 persons. While in 83 election activities, the location of election activity did not allow for the participation of persons with disabilities.
Media coverage
Media were not present in 47% of electoral activities monitored at country level, whereas in activities they did cover, the same were able to report freely.
Security provision
In most of the monitored cases, the Kosovo Police took care of securing election activities.
Use of social networks
From the very beginning of the election campaign, DiA also monitored the use of official pages in the social network “Facebook” by coalitions and political entities.
Krasniqi informed that from the first day of the campaign until yesterday, political entities that are part of the LAA (LDK-AKR-Alternative) Coalition have the highest number of posts on their official Facebook page, namely 128 posts, followed by political entities part of the PAN (PDK-AAK-Nisma) coalition with 77 posts, and LVV with 38 posts.
With regard to Prime Minister candidates, Avdullah Hoti has the highest number of posts on his official Facebook page, namely 71 posts, followed by Ramush Haradinaj with 34 posts and Albin Kurti with 30 posts.
Incidents reported
On the first day was reported of an incident that occurred in the municipality of Graçanica where political entities SLS and LS had some disagreements on the use of a billboard, a case where police intervention was required.
On the second day of the campaign was reported of a tensed situation in an activity organized by Lista Srpska (in Novo Brdo), and was also reported that this political entity decided not to organize any public meetings in this municipality (Novo Brdo).
On the fifth day, was reported that the leader of Kosovo Serb Party, Aleksandar Jablanovic, and his wife Kristina were arrested in Leposavić for possessing a firearm. The arrest was preceded by a conflict between supporters of Lista Srpska and the Kosovo Serb Party.
Whereas Dušan Radaković, from DiA spoke regarding the electoral campaign in four municipalities (North Mitrovica, Leposaviq, Zubin Potok and Zveçan) pointing out that it in general things are going well, with the exception of Leposavic because of the problems between the Serbian List (Lista Srpska) and the Kosovo Serb Party.
“In North Mitrovica, Leposavic and Zubin Potok only the Serbian List (Lista Srpska) is campaigning normally through promotional materials as well as through social networks”, he added.
Whereas, Petrit Zogaj from DiA, presented findings from the current monitoring of printed and electronic media.
With regard to written media, he stated that in total 252 analyzes, advertisements, informative articles, and interviews were produced over these days.
“While collecting data regarding the coverage of political parties in written newspapers, the LDK had the highest level of coverage with 24.74%, followed by VV with 15.81%. PDK (13.35%) had a higher level of coverage compared to its coalition partner AAK (12.46%)”.
If we are to analyze the gender aspect, it has been reported that out of all analyzes, informative articles, advertisements and interviews only 13% of them are for women, while 87% are for men.
Regarding the electronic media (5 TV Channels), namely coverage that parties received in election chronicles, Zogaj stated that VV leads with 25.4%, followed by LDK with 19.2%, and the two coalition parties PDK and AAK with 11.8% and 9.7% respectively, and their other partner with only 5.4%. Other parties include minority parties which jointly amounted 9%. AKR (7.6%) and Alternativa (6.6%) have similar figures.
“Electoral chronicles, such as newspapers, have paid more attention to men than women. As can be seen below, women's coverage in election chronicles was only 12.7%, and men 87.3%,” he added further.