Supreme Court rejects PDK's request for re-election in South Mitrovica

2025-11-20 18:34:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Supreme Court has rejected as "unfounded" the request of the Democratic Party of Kosovo to order the Central Election Commission to organize a rerun of the mayoral elections in South Mitrovica.

The Supreme Court said that "based on the factual and legal situation of the case, it has accepted the legal position" of the Electoral Panel for Complaints and Appeals as entirely fair and well-founded.

"The Supreme Court finds that none of the parties' claims have been proven and substantiated and there is no legal basis to prove that there were violations of a substantial nature that could affect the integrity of the electoral process or the final result, therefore, it assessed that the evidence presented does not create sufficient grounds for the court to be convinced that a re-vote should be ordered in this specific case," the decision said.

PDK had addressed the Supreme Court on November 16, after the ECAP rejected its request for a rerun in South Mitrovica.

The race for South Mitrovica was won in the runoff on November 9 by Faton Peci of the Vetëvendosje Movement, against Arian Tahiri of the PDK, with a margin of over 2,000 votes.

A day after the runoff vote, PDK and Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) commissioners in South Mitrovica withdrew from the vote verification process amid suspicions of abuse.

They had encountered ballots with a polling station code that did not match the polling station they came from. It was later discovered that there were 75 such ballots.

The prosecution ordered the suspension of the verification and the process resumed a day later, also with the prosecution's decision.

The PDK complained to the ECAP, arguing that, in addition to ballots that were found mixed between different classes and schools, in violation of the unique polling station codes, voter turnout in the runoff was higher than in the first round on October 12.

She also complained that during the counting process, many unstamped ballots were found, while some others were found to be stamped twice.

The ECAP added that PDK's claims are unfounded, given that the CEC has formed a commission to verify suspicious ballots, and that the company responsible for printing them has clarified that it is a "technical error."

The panel assessed that there was no violation of the integrity of the elections./ REL