December 28 elections in Kosovo/ CEC does not certify Serbian List candidates

2025-12-10 17:35:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Kosovo Central Election Commission (CEC) did not certify the Serbian List candidates for deputies in the December 28 snap parliamentary elections on Wednesday, just a week after it failed to ban the largest Serb party in Kosovo from participating in these elections.

This is the latest in a series of failed attempts by several members of the commission to prevent this party from participating in either parliamentary or local elections in the country.

With two votes against, six abstentions and three in favor, the 33 Serbian List candidates were not certified despite the Office for the Registration of Political Parties requesting their certification, saying that their names do not conflict with the election law.

"The list of candidates has been verified based on the law on general elections. From the data received from the country's institutions, it appears that no candidate is in violation of the law on elections ," said the head of the Office for the Registration of Political Parties, Besnik Buzhala.

Members of the ruling Vetevendosje Movement party in the CEC, Sami Kurteshi and Alban Krasniqi, voted against.

Kurteshi did not give any reason why he voted against, but briefly said that "I am against the certification of the Serbian List along with its candidates."

Members of other Albanian political parties in the CEC abstained from voting. The Serbian List can appeal this decision to the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP).

Wednesday's vote comes just days after the ECAP ordered the CEC to overturn its December 2 decision to decertify the Serbian List and ordered its participation in the elections, saying the commission had not provided "any justification" for the decision.

The panel said that the Serb List had met the conditions set out by law for participation in this month's elections.

The international community condemned that commission's decision, as it has done in the past, as the largest Kosovo Serb party has faced ongoing efforts this year to prevent it from participating in either parliamentary or local elections.

This is the fourth time that the CEC has not initially certified this party or its candidates, as it did similarly for the regular parliamentary elections of February 9 and the local elections of October 12.

In all cases, the ECAP has overturned the CEC's decision against it. In the February 9 elections, the Serbian List won 9 out of 10 seats guaranteed for the Serbian minority in the Kosovo Assembly.

Meanwhile, it won all 10 municipalities with a Serb majority in the October local elections, returning to power after abandoning Kosovo's institutions in 2022.

Kosovo will hold early elections this month because the ruling party of the incumbent Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, the Vetevendosje Movement, failed in two attempts to gain the support of the Assembly for a new mandate.

She won the February 9 elections, but 48 seats in the Assembly were insufficient to govern alone and she did not find a partner to form even a minority government of 61 seats in the Assembly. /REL