With less than 24 hours remaining for the election of the president, and if this does not happen the country will head to early parliamentary elections, the institution responsible for organizing the electoral process says that holding a new election in such a short time after the last one represents a major challenge. The Central Election Commission (CEC) also does not have a separate budget allocated for organizing such potential elections.
However, CEC spokesperson Valmir Elezi told KosovaPress that the CEC remains obliged to act in accordance with its constitutional and legal mandate, taking all necessary steps to ensure the proper conduct of any process.
Elezi said that no regular electoral process is planned for 2026, and therefore no funds have been included in the institution’s budget for a possible early election.
According to Elezi, if the country goes to new elections, one of the first steps the CEC will take is drafting a budget plan for their organization, which will then be submitted to the Government of Kosovo for approval.
Elezi told KosovaPress that it is still not possible to estimate how much another electoral process could cost Kosovo, which would be the fifth within 16 months.
“We cannot currently know what the approximate cost of organizing a possible electoral process would be, because every process has its own specifics. But as a reminder, the budget planned for organizing the last parliamentary elections, which were early elections held on 28 December, was €11.5 million. Meanwhile, according to the latest non-final reports, around €7 million were spent on organizing those elections. However, for a rough estimate, this matter is decided by the Central Election Commission after all requests from relevant CEC units, which have specific responsibilities in the electoral process, are taken into consideration,” the CEC spokesperson said.
Tuesday is the final day of the constitutional deadline for electing the new president. So far, political parties have not reached consensus on a candidate who could secure the support of at least 80 MPs in the voting process. In Monday’s session, Feride Rushiti and Hatixhe Hoxha were presented as candidates, while Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca and LVV MP Fatmire Kollçaku withdrew their candidacies.
