Physical voting at embassies, vote counting at municipal counting centers, voting for 10 candidates...

These are just some of the new practices that were established with the new Law on General Elections and that were implemented for the first time in the February 9 elections in Kosovo, writes KosovaPress.

But how much were these changes worth?

There were suspicions of manipulation, invalid ballots and recount, reports KosovaPress.

Thirty-four days after the elections, the final results have not yet been announced by the Central Election Commission. The CEC is scheduled to announce the results today.

The Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) considers that the new Election Law has not produced any concrete results in the administration of the electoral process, KosovaPress reported.

According to researcher Vullnet Bugaqku, the CEC has failed to administer the process of counting votes for candidates.

According to him, if a counting process passes through the hands of commissioners, "manipulation or suspicion of manipulation of the results, whether by political parties or candidates for deputies, will inevitably manifest itself."

On the other hand, CEC spokesperson Valmir Elezi says that after the entire process is completed, the impacts of the legal changes will also be analyzed.

Elezi adds that the CEC still does not have the final cost, as the process has not yet been completed, reports KosovaPress.

The new law on general elections - adopted in mid-2023 - allowed for 10 candidates to be voted on for the first time, up from 5 in the past.

For the first time, physical voting was also organized in 30 diplomatic missions of Kosovo in 19 countries, as well as voting by mail in mailboxes opened by the CEC in 22 different countries around the world.

Elections in Kosovo - the first regular ones since the declaration of independence in 2008 - were held on February 9, after a month-long election campaign.

There were 28 political entities with 1.280 candidates in the race, reports KosovaPress.

According to preliminary results, the Vetëvendosje Movement, in coalition with Guxo and Alternativa, emerged as the winner of the elections, followed by the Democratic Party of Kosovo, the Democratic League of Kosovo in third place, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo in coalition with Nisma in fourth place.

/Kosovapress/