Scale of Kosovo Vote Fraud Daunts Observers

Kosovo's Counting and Result Centre, based on the outskirts of Pristina, has already recounted some 423 of 760 disputed ballot boxes, a Central Election Commission press release has announced.

But one source involved in the recount told Balkan Insight that so many irregularities had already emerged that any results from these elections may end up being deemed untrustworthy.

Around 40 per cent of ballot boxes from the 2,280 polling stations have been sent for recounting as a result of reported irregularities. In addition, completely new votes are to be held on January 9 in three municipalities.

"The main problem is the voting for the candidates," the source said. Voters were allowed to pick their five top candidates on the ballot. But politicians from all parties have complained that the business of candidate selection was subject to manipulation.

"The whole process of recounting the votes is becoming questionable owing to the amount of problems," the source added. "I wonder if they [the elections] are legitimate anymore."

The ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, is likely to suffer from the recounts and fresh votes. The PDK emerged as the biggest party according to preliminary figures produced by the election commission. But is expected to do badly in the new vote held in two of its strongholds, Skenderaj and Drenas, where turnout was a dubious 94 and 86 per cent respectively.