After Haxhiu and Kryeziu’s claims, questions arise over the counting of votes within PDK

Bekim Haxhiu and Qëndrim Kryeziu, both former candidates for deputy from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, a few days ago filed a complaint with the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP), in which they requested a full recount of the preferential votes for this party’s candidates.

In their complaint, they raised suspicions that irregularities and discrepancies may have occurred during the counting process, and therefore requested a comprehensive verification to ensure transparency and accuracy in the final result.

The request sent to the ECAP states: “The recount of only 185 polling stations, which includes around 3.52% of PDK’s votes, showed that there were errors in the initial count…”

However, today the ECAP decided to reject as unfounded the complaints of the two PDK candidates for deputy, Bekim Haxhiu and Qëndrim Kryeziu.

According to the decisions of June 22, 2026, the panel composed of judges Skender Çoçaj, Kymete Kicaj and Arsim Hamzaj assessed that the claims presented by the candidates do not meet the conditions for approval.

Lawyer Gazmend Halilaj, in a statement to “Bota sot”, said that Haxhiu and Kryeziu’s complaint should be seen as an effort to guarantee transparency and accuracy in the electoral process, with the main emphasis on the ranking of candidates within PDK.

According to him, procedures related to complaints and recounts may slow the certification of the results, but remain necessary to ensure the legitimacy of the electoral process and the establishment of institutions on proper legal grounds.

Halilaj said: “Bekim Haxhiu and Qëndrim Kryeziu’s complaint to the ECAP should first and foremost be seen as an effort to ensure transparency and accuracy in the electoral process. However, the fact that the request comes from candidates of the same party and concerns preferential votes for deputies shows that this is mainly a matter of the internal ranking of PDK candidates and not the overall election result.

However, the delays are not directly related to changing the balance of political forces, but to the completion of all legal procedures that guarantee the legitimacy of the result. The more complaints and recounts there are, the longer the certification process may be extended, which could affect the deadlines for the establishment of institutions,” the lawyer stressed.

He added that the claims of vote manipulation within PDK, for the moment, remain at the level of suspicion until there is concrete evidence.

In his statement to “Bota sot”, Halilaj said: “As for the claims of vote manipulation within PDK, such conclusions cannot currently be drawn without concrete evidence and without a decision from the competent institutions. The existence of counting errors does not necessarily imply manipulation; they may be the result of human error during the counting process. However, the very request for a recount shows that there is mistrust among some candidates regarding the way preferential votes were administered. If a full recount were to reveal considerable differences, then serious questions would be raised about the integrity of the counting process within this party. Until then, it is more accurate to speak of suspicions and demands for transparency than of proven manipulation”.

On the other hand, analyst Faton Mehmeti told the newspaper that the complaints of PDK candidates to the ECAP are not coincidental and that, according to him, there are serious suspicions of vote manipulation within the party.

He assessed that the ECAP should proceed with a recount of the votes of PDK candidates so that the process is transparent and fair.

Mehmeti told “Bota sot”: “It is already known that PDK is known for the theft it carries out within the party itself, with candidates from the same party stealing votes from one another, which is not surprising.

So I believe there must have been many elements that led the deputies in question to turn to the ECAP, and so I believe and am convinced that there has been pronounced manipulation from within PDK, but there are suspicions and manipulation within other parties as well, yet within PDK there certainly is because they have become well-practiced at this, therefore I expect the ECAP to count all the votes of PDK deputies because there truly have been abuses.

I believe that former deputy Haxhiu must have facts to bring about a fair decision in his favor if the votes of all PDK candidates are counted.

In this sense, this may delay for a certain period the official announcement of the election results by the CEC, but I believe it is entirely right for there to be a clean process for all candidates who participated in this process,” he stressed to “Bota sot”.