Former candidates for assembly members in Ferizaj demand investigation into local election results

2026-01-26 15:04:51, Kosova & Bota CNA

Former candidates for assembly members in Ferizaj demand investigation into

Thirty-three former candidates for the Municipal Assembly of Ferizaj have addressed the Basic Prosecutor's Office in this municipality, requesting an expansion of the investigations regarding the election results of the local elections of October 12. Meanwhile, they have requested extraordinary verification measures from the Central Election Commission.

However, the CEC has certified the results for these elections and destroyed the election material.

Bashkim Fazliu, who ran as an independent for the Ferizaj Municipal Assembly, said they are seeking an expansion of the investigation, as they suspect that there was manipulation of the election results, similar to what was observed for the general elections of December 28, regarding votes for candidates for deputies.

"We have submitted the first request to the Basic Prosecution Office in Ferizaj and for information we will also send it to Laura Pula, the national coordinator for elections. We have made a request to the prosecutor's office to expand the investigations that are being conducted for December 28th since it is of the same nature, the commissioners are almost the same," he said, adding that there is a suspicion that the commissioners may have misused votes for the October 12th elections as well.

By order of the Basic Prosecution Office of Prizren, 109 people were detained last week, under suspicion of misuse of the election results of December 28. 23 of them have been sentenced to one month's detention.

Although in Prizren, the manipulation is estimated to have been on a higher scale, investigations have also been launched in Ferizaj and Malisheva for possible misuse of the election results.

Fazliu told the media that the CEC has been requested to undertake extraordinary verification measures "after new evidence of abuses and manipulations that occurred on December 28th came to light."

"We have requested the CEC to undertake extraordinary verification measures, and one of the requests is a recount of the ballots. If the result is the same, then it is fine, if the result is not the same, we request the cancellation of the certification," he said, adding that unlike general elections, for local elections, even one vote determines who enters the Municipal Assembly and who does not.

Fazliu said that he has not seen information that election material for the local elections, the results of which were certified in early December 2025, has been destroyed.

However, CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi said that in accordance with the law, the election material for the October local elections has been destroyed.

The law provides that election material must be destroyed within 60 days after the certification of the election results, unless the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel decides otherwise.

Elezi from the CEC said that in the process of destroying materials, those that the State Prosecutor's Office and the courts "are handling" were excluded.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty asked the State Prosecutor's Office whether the materials being processed include those from the municipality of Ferizaj, but it redirected the questions to the Basic Prosecutor's Office in Ferizaj. The investigating body in Ferizaj has not yet responded.

Otherwise, due to discrepancies observed in the votes of candidates for deputies, on January 19 the CEC decided to conduct a full recount of regular votes. The recount is expected to further delay the formation of Kosovo's new institutions resulting from the December 28 elections. /REL