The coalition of NGOs “Democracy in Action” is continuing to observe the election process of local elections taking place today in the entire territory of the country.
According to reports by DiA observers, until 12:00 a.m., 276 342 eligible voters, or 14.61% of all voters with the right to vote casted their vote.
Voter Turnout
The municipalities with the highest voter turnout are: Kllokot (32.10%), Mamusha (24.93%) and Leposaviq (23.38%).
Municipalities with the lowest voter turnout are: Skenderaj (9.36%), Dragash (10.85%) and Rahovec (11.20%).
According to official CEC data, the size of the electoral body in the local elections is 1,890,952 voters, which is about 18,011 voters more than in the parliamentary elections of 11 June 2017.
The most observed irregularities
In general, there is a decrease in the number of cases related to family voting compared to parliamentary elections at the same reporting time and related to the difficulties in finding the name on the Voter List.
The most frequent irregularities in the field following the voting process until 12:00 a.m. are:
Attempts to vote more than once (double voting)
· A total of 26 cases, in 9 polling stations.
The following municipalities lead in this aspect: Ferizaj (13 cases), Mitrovica (8 cases), Prizren (2 cases).
Family voting
· A total of 1967 cases in 338 polling stations, or expressed in percentage, at 13.5% of all polling stations.
The following municipalities lead in this aspect: Gjakova (330 cases); Ferizaj (208 cases), Lipjan (138 cases).
Photographing the vote
· Photographing the vote was evidenced in 138 cases or in 80 polling stations at the country level, expressed in percentage, in 3.2% of all polling stations.
Deçan leads in this aspect with 25 cases, followed by Peja 22 and Prishtina with 19 cases.
Voting outside the voting screens (or publication of the vote)
· A total of 41 cases in 24 polling stations (or expressed in percentage, in 0.95% of polling stations).
The following municipalities lead in this aspect: Skenderaj (10 cases) , Ferizaj (9 cases) and Prishtina (4 cases).
Assisting the voters more than once
· A total of 193 cases in 65 polling stations (or expressed in percentage, in 2.6% of polling stations).
The following municipalities lead in this aspect: Peja (40 cases), Suhareka (31 cases) and Prizren (28 cases).
Voters facing difficulties to find their names on the Voter List
These difficulties are following even this election process. Complaints regarding the Voter List were reported in 401 cases in 113 polling stations, or at 4.5% of the polling stations. Municipalities where this problem was encountered are Prizren with 88 cases, Prishtina with 77 cases and Mitrovica with 38 cases.
Presence of unauthorized persons at polling centres and at polling stations
This was evidenced in 11 polling stations (or expressed in percentage, at 0.44% of polling stations). Municipalities of Prishtina and Gjilani lead in this aspect with two polling stations each.
Incidents and irregularities reported from the field:
· At the polling centre 0311E, polling station 02R at the “Luigj Gurakuqi” school in municipality of Drenas, it was noted that some ballots were printed with a narrow in the section belonging to political entity Nisma. Consequently, commissioners have removed a total of 50 ballots out of use.
· At the polling centre 1121B, polling station 02D at “Mehë Uka” school in municipality of Mitrovica, a person was allowed to vote with a photocopied ID.
· At the polling centre 1921E, polling station 01R at “Asim Vokshi” school in Prishtina, a voter reports that his name was previously signed in the Voter List.
· At the polling centre 0616C, polling station 01D at “Ndre Mjeda” school in municipality of Istog, a commissioner of VETËVENDOSJE! has given fake identity and was consequently taken out of the polling station.
· At the polling centre 5201A, polling station 02R at “Anadolu” school in municipality of Mamusha, a person voted using his wife’s identification document at 11:30 a.m.
· At the polling centre 2419A, polling station 02D at “28 Nëntori” school in municipality of Suhareka , the polling station chairperson has conditionally voted but he has photographed his ballot while he voted.
· At the polling centre 0438 D, polling station 01D at “Bajram Curri” school in Gjilan, a person is constantly bringing people and is pretending to be sometimes as a commissioner and sometimes as an observer.
· At the polling centre 1808 E, polling station 01R at “Emin Duraku” school in Podujeva, a brochure of LDK candidates was found behind the voting screen of this polling station.
· At the polling centre 3401E, in the polling station 09D, at Krajl Milutin School in the municipality of Graçanica, a person at 9:30 a.m. attempted to photograph the ballot. He was detained and taken out by the police.
· At the polling centre 3805B, polling station 11R at “Sveti Sava” school in North Mitrovica, a woman at 11 a.m. has looked through the whole signature booklet claiming that she is just trying to see who voted. Then, she said that she wants to vote too.
· At the polling centre 2110B, polling station 02D at “Skender Skender” school in municipality of Skenderaj, there are constant attempts for more than two persons to stay behind the booth. However, they were never allowed to stay there.
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DiA invites the citizens to vote and thus become part of the decision-making and policy-making process which is in the function of improving their well-being and life.
DiA asks political entities to continue to refrain from any action that could undermine the integrity of the electoral process. DiA expects that the country’s institutions will continue to take all appropriate measures to ensure a peaceful atmosphere as well as democratic and free elections.