Political elections in Kosovo - a lesson for the mother country

2025-02-13 14:51:00, Editorial Ekrem Spahiu

There were many suspicions, even pushbacks, from inside and outside Kosovo, to relativize and orient its last parliamentary elections. And yet, the voters of Kosovo themselves showed their political maturity, deciding, with their free vote, that the next government should be more collegial to continue working for the benefit of Kosovo, cutting off the path to governance by a single political party.

Kosovo, the second poorest country in Europe according to estimates by credible European institutions, demonstrated rich values ??of European standards by holding free and fair elections. The elections in Kosovo were a model for a well-organized electoral process, a classic electoral campaign where parties and candidates presented their alternatives, a fast and uncontested voting and counting process.

The European Union has immediately welcomed the fact that the parliamentary elections in Kosovo were held in a peaceful atmosphere, in which citizens were able to freely express their will. A delegation from the Committee on Politics and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, immediately after the elections, stated that the election process in Kosovo was inclusive and peaceful and that the members of the local election commissions should be commended for their collegial and respectful cooperation, overcoming political differences.

In Albania, as in Kosovo, the list of candidates is drawn up by the party or the president, but in Kosovo, voters elect members of parliament (MPs) directly through secret ballot based on open lists. This means that in Kosovo it is the citizen who chooses the MP and the ranking is made by the voter, while in Albania the appetites, preferences and bargaining of party politicians still decide.

In Kosovo, the diaspora vote is simply part of the normality of the electoral process.

On the contrary, in Albania, it took almost a struggle to achieve the inclusion of the diaspora in the elections, and this is only starting with the elections that we expect to take place on May 11, 2025! Not to mention that, even though it was possible to make the diaspora part of the electoral process, the obstacles to hinder it are not over.

In Kosovo, immediately after the elections, within 24 hours the counting is completed and the loser admits defeat and takes responsibility for the loss. Meanwhile, in Albania, before the electoral process is even fully over, the clamor of accusations of theft begins – a separate epithet used only in Albania, an expression even more vulgar than the actual alienation of the vote, or the manipulation of the process.

Thus, Kosovo, with only a few years of statehood, managed to do what Albania, with over 100 years of statehood, has not managed to do: hold free, fair, honest elections accepted by the competing entities.

Here, then, is a model for a nationwide culture. By appreciating and implementing such models from one another, national unity also becomes a more tangible subject for achieving what Albania is constitutionally obligated to do and Kosovo sees as a legitimate eternal dream.

In this context, the political elections in Kosovo and the messages they gave us were and are part of the attention and assessment of the Movement for National Development, for which the national issue is one of the top priorities.