NGOs on the Chief Prosecutor race: The process so far has been conducted transparently and on the basis of meritocracy

The Kosovo Law Institute (IKD), the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), and the FOL Movement have assessed that, up to this stage, the process for the selection and appointment of the State Chief Prosecutor has proceeded regularly, transparently, and with equal treatment for all candidates.

In their joint statement, these organizations said they have monitored all the main stages of this process, including the approval of the regulation, the confirmation of candidacies, the drafting of questions, and the interviewing of the five candidates.

According to the coalition of NGOs, the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPK) has addressed a considerable portion of the shortcomings that had been identified in the previous process for selecting the State Chief Prosecutor. They stress that the changes made to the regulation have aligned the procedures with the legislation in force, clarified competencies, and removed procedural ambiguities.

The organizations also positively assessed the publication of the candidates’ concept papers, underlining that this step has strengthened transparency and given the public and the media the opportunity to become familiar in advance with each candidate’s vision.

The report says that during the candidacy verification phase, no substantive problems were encountered and that all five candidates met the legal criteria to continue in the race.

According to the monitoring findings, the drafting of the standard questions was done in the presence of monitors and the entire process was audio and video recorded, while measures were taken to guarantee its confidentiality and integrity.

The coalition assesses that the most important finding is related to the fact that no unequal treatment of candidates was observed during the interviews. All were interviewed under the same circumstances, received the same standard questions, had equal time to respond, and were evaluated immediately after the interviews ended.

Likewise, the monitors did not identify communication among members of the Evaluation Panel that could have raised suspicions of coordinated scoring or undermined the independence of the process.

IKD, KDI, and FOL stressed that, because the points difference between the candidates is small, the remaining stages until the appointment of the State Chief Prosecutor must also be conducted carefully, transparently, and in line with the principles of legality, meritocracy, and equality.

The coalition also announced that it will continue monitoring until all procedures are completed, while the final report will be made public after the process is concluded.