During a meeting of the Central Election Commission (CEC), there was a confrontation between members from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Vetëvendosje Movement regarding the approval of the additional budget for the upcoming local elections.
Ilir Gashi, a CEC member from PDK, stated that the government’s delay in approving the budget could negatively impact the organization of the elections.
“I have a question for you — time is passing and the budget still hasn’t been approved by the government, and I think you need to communicate, because the failure to quickly approve the budget risks some election operations, especially those related to the diaspora. The failure to allocate the budget on time could jeopardize the implementation of these operations,” Gashi said.
On the other hand, Alban Krasniqi, a CEC member from Vetëvendosje, responded to Gashi by saying it was not true that the government had not allocated the budget. According to him, the issue concerns additional budget requests.
“It is not true that the government has not allocated the budget. For all requests we have made, the government has allocated the funds. The issue is about additional budget requests which we, as an institution, did not plan for,” Krasniqi said.
Following this, Gashi told Krasniqi, “You are not the government’s spokesperson.”
“I asked Hekuran Murati a question here. I treat this as a concern. You are not the government’s spokesperson,” Gashi added.
Krasniqi then replied, accusing Gashi of misleading the public.
“You said the government did not allocate the budget — that is not true. You have to admit you misinformed the public. The government allocated this budget last year. With certain media you have misinformed the public,” Krasniqi continued.
Additionally, during the CEC meeting, the appointment of 216 members of the Municipal Election Commissions across 38 municipalities in Kosovo was approved. These members represent various political parties.
CEC member Arianit Elshani stated that all members went through the proper legal procedures for this process.
It was also noted that for the local elections on October 12, two coalitions have registered, while five parties have withdrawn from the race.
The “Vakat Coalition,” composed of the political parties Demokratska Stranka Bošnjaka (DSB) and Demokratska Stranka Vatan (DSV), and the “SDU-NASA Coalition” (NASA SDU), composed of the Socijaldemokratska Unija and Naša Inicijativa, formed exclusively for the municipality of Prizren.
Meanwhile, the political parties that will not participate in the October 12 elections are the National Democratic Balli Organization, the Democratic Party of the Diaspora, the Justice Party, the Kosovo New Roma Party, and the Ballist Party.
