This week, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Kosovo has withdrawn over 13,000 presumed mail-in ballot packages from postal boxes in 22 different countries.
These ballot packages correspond to voting from abroad in the second round of mayoral elections for 18 municipalities, which concluded on November 8, while the total number of citizens eligible to vote in this process was approximately 30,000.
The news was confirmed to Gazeta Express by the CEC spokesperson, Valmir Elezi.
“On Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 13,000 presumed ballot packages were withdrawn from the CEC postal boxes in 22 different countries. These belong to the mail-in voting process abroad for the second round of mayoral elections in 18 municipalities,” Elezi stated.
He added that before the ballots are counted, a verification process will be conducted to ensure that the packages were sent by registered voters.
“Before counting the ballots from voting abroad, the evaluation and verification process began on Thursday at noon. Its purpose is to confirm whether these packages were sent by Kosovo citizens registered as voters abroad. In total, 13,000 packages will undergo this verification process, and we will have more details at the end. The CEC refers to these as ‘presumed ballot packages’ because, at this stage, it is not possible to know with certainty whether the packages contain ballots or whether they were submitted by registered voters,” Elezi explained.
According to the CEC, during the registration period (July 23 – August 29, 2025), the number of citizens registered to vote by mail in the second round of mayoral elections for the 18 municipalities was 29,725.
