As of 11:00 a.m., 7.84 percent, or 158,619 voters, have cast their ballots in the local elections in Kosovo.

This was reported by the Central Election Commission (CEC). The CEC Chairperson, Kreshnik Radoniqi, said that the voting process so far is proceeding calmly and in an orderly manner.

“Based on preliminary data from around 94 percent of polling stations, the number of eligible voters who have voted by 11:00 a.m. is 158,619, or 7.84 percent of the 2,025,105 eligible voters. At the same time in the 2021 local elections, 152,000 voters had voted by 11:00 a.m., or 8.2 percent of the 1,850,000 eligible voters,” he said.

Radoniqi added that no irregularities have been reported that could compromise the integrity or overall conduct of the electoral process.

“The voting process at this stage is calm and orderly. So far, no irregularities have been reported that could undermine the integrity or overall conduct of the election process. The CEC remains in constant contact with election staff on the ground and with responsible institutions to ensure that every aspect of the process continues in accordance with the law and electoral rules,” Radoniqi added.

Meanwhile, CEC member from Vetëvendosje (LVV), Sami Kurteshi, raised concerns about a breach of the Code of Conduct by the Serbian List.

He said that the Serbian List held an electoral gathering in front of its offices, organizing citizens in North Mitrovica to vote in a coordinated manner.

Additionally, he stated that in the north there have been attempts to bring people to vote using Serbian ID cards and expressed concern that these incidents were not reflected in the CEC’s report.

“The Serbian List organized a gathering in front of its offices. This is a violation of the Code of Conduct, since the electoral campaign officially ended at 7:00 a.m. with the opening of the polling stations. Today, a gathering was held, and in relation to the population size, it was massive. Secondly, they went to the polling stations in an organized manner, and we have photos showing that corridors were intentionally blocked to cause problems and incidents… There are also attempts to bring people to vote using non-Kosovar ID cards. These are not reflected in the report,” Kurteshi emphasized.

He also called for the de-accreditation of two Serbian media outlets, RTS and Tanjug, citing hate speech and propaganda against Kosovo.

“This is the language used by Radio Television of Serbia regarding the elections in Kosovo. It spreads internal hatred against Kosovo and Albanians. We have a media code of conduct, and these are violations by both political subjects and media… The reason we opposed the accreditation of some Serbian media is that they provided no documents, only photographed ID cards, without even submitting a proper request… I call for the de-accreditation of RTS and Tanjug due to hate speech and the misinformation they are spreading about today’s elections,” he stressed.

/ KosovaPress