In addition to the political crisis at the central level due to the failure to constitute the Assembly of Kosovo, more than three months after the certification of the parliamentary election results, political entities are preparing candidate lists for the upcoming elections for mayors and municipal assemblies.
Less than 40 days remain until the deadline for political parties to officially submit their candidates for the local level elections.
In an interview, Central Election Commission (CEC) spokesperson Valmir Elezi told KosovaPress that although 10 days have passed since the application period opened, no political entity has officially submitted an application.
“So far, no political entity has submitted certification requests or candidate lists for the local elections. This application period began on June 26 and will end on August 13, 2025. Usually, based on experience from past electoral processes, political entities spend the first weeks seeking information about the required documentation and criteria set by the Law on General Elections, the Law on Local Elections, and the CEC’s sub-legal acts”, said Elezi.
According to Elezi, in order to facilitate the application process, the CEC allows online application submission, including the candidate lists.
But, according to him, initially, the authorized representative of the political entity (civic initiatives and independent candidates) must fill in the required data online on the platform: https://apliko.kqz-ks.org. For registered political parties and coalitions, user accounts have already been created and sent, so they are not required to go through this initial step. Once the application is confirmed, the Office for Registration, Certification, and Financial Oversight of Political Entities will email login credentials to the authorized representative to access the online platform and submit the application.
Elezi also explained to KosovaPress that all candidates will be verified by the CEC and other institutions to ensure compliance with Article 30 of the Law on General Elections. Among the institutions the CEC will request verification from is the Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC).
“The Kosovo Judicial Council is one of the institutions that the CEC will request to verify candidates. Article 30 of the Law on General Elections states that a person cannot be a candidate if “he has been convicted in the last 3 years by a final court decision for a criminal offense, with one or more years of effective imprisonment”. Therefore, in order to implement this legal provision, we will request the KJC to verify the list of candidates if any of them does not comply with this legal restriction”, said Elezi.
Otherwise, according to Article 30 of the Law on General Elections, a person cannot be certified as a candidate for deputy who has a special function based on the Law in force on Public Officials; a member of the foreign service and diplomatic representative; a chairperson or member of the CEC and the Municipal Election Commission; an official of the ECAP; has been deprived of the right to be a candidate by a court decision, including a decision of the ECAP; has been convicted in the last three years by a final court decision for a criminal offense, with one or more years of effective imprisonment; has failed to pay the fine imposed by the ECAP or the CEC; or has failed to comply with any order of the ECAP.
