In this case, besides Krasniqi, the accused include Përparim Përvatica, Ilirjan Hysenaj, and Sahit Mataj, reports “Betimi për Drejtësi”.

At the opening of the session, the presiding judge, Vesel Ismaili, announced that the composition of the trial panel had changed. Judge Ngadhnjim Arrni had been removed and replaced by judge Lutfi Shala. Ismaili also noted that more than six months had passed since the last session.

With the agreement of all parties, the trial panel decided that the statements and actions carried out earlier in this process be considered as read.

Speaking about his engagement at the Counting and Results Center (QNR), Krasniqi said he worked in a “data entry” position, not as part of the IT sector.

He denied having registered votes into the system contrary to the law. Regarding the identification card, namely the badge with the name “Arigon Beka”, Krasniqi said he received it from the center’s officials.

According to him, the use of this badge was due to delays and procedural obstacles in securing a new card in his name. He declared that QNR officials had suggested he use it, as obtaining another card required a lengthy procedure.

Krasniqi emphasized that he followed these instructions to begin work as a counter, without waiting for the completion of administrative procedures.

Regarding his relationship with Sahit Mataj, Krasniqi stated that Mataj worked in the same hall at the QNR and was the one who initially approached their table in a friendly manner.

He explained that Mataj would periodically move near his table and other tables, asking employees if they needed anything.

Concerning the meeting with Jetmir Bytyqi, Krasniqi said Mataj invited him to a meeting at a fuel station. According to him, Mataj had warned him that it concerned a suspected case of vote misuse.

“Sahiti informed me that he wanted to meet someone, in this case Jetmir,” Krasniqi expressed.

He said Mataj had told him that Bytyqi claimed his votes were being taken and that the purpose of the meeting was to create a scenario to make these suspicions public, with the goal of achieving a recount of the votes.

According to Krasniqi, on the way to the meeting place, Mataj was constantly on the phone with Bytyqi, informing him of their approach.

Krasniqi declared that he did not know Jetmir Bytyqi previously and that the introduction between them was made by Sahit Mataj after they sat at the table.

He said that Bytyqi, upon realizing Krasniqi worked at the QNR, had directly asked for benefits.

“Naturally, that was the nature of that meeting. He asked for benefits,” Krasniqi said.

The accused stated that money was mentioned during the conversation, but insisted that he himself did not benefit at all.

“Money was mentioned, but were benefits created or not for that money mentioned? I don’t know. Never from me,” the accused added.

According to his statement, the meeting lasted approximately 30 to 40 minutes. Afterward, Krasniqi left with the vehicle he arrived in, while Mataj got into Bytyqi’s car.

Asked about the phrase “a very dirty structure”, used in previous statements, Krasniqi clarified that he meant the scenario he faced. He said this was not a characterization of Mataj, but of the situation that had arisen.

According to Krasniqi, the purpose of the arrangement by Jetmir Bytyqi was to publish a video recording to exert pressure for votes to be recounted, as Bytyqi suspected his votes were being stolen.

Krasniqi also said he had not observed any irregularity that would favor former minister Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla.

“At the table where I was counting votes, there was no vote theft at all,” he added.

After the video was published, Krasniqi stated that he called Mataj to ask him the reason for this act.

“You are clean and you don’t need to worry,” Krasniqi quoted Mataj as saying.

At the conclusion of his testimony, Krasniqi said he invites Mataj to tell the truth he knows, whatever it may be.

After Krasniqi’s defense, the session was interrupted at the request of lawyer Imer Beka, defender of Ilirjan Hysenaj. Beka informed the trial panel that he could not continue as he was feeling unwell.

On November 13, 2023, the Court had separated the criminal proceedings against Granit Halilaj and Dardan Gashi, as both had reached plea agreements.

For Halilaj, a judgment was issued on November 14, 2023, sentencing him to 1 year of suspended imprisonment for the criminal offense of falsifying voting results.

Meanwhile, Gashi was sentenced to 12 months of suspended imprisonment, on the condition that he not commit any other criminal offense within 12 months. He was also given a supplementary punishment of a 12-month ban from practicing his profession in public administration.

The judicial process continued against Shala, Krasniqi, Mataj, Përvatica, and Hysenaj. At the session on February 20, 2025, the Court separated the proceedings against former deputy Haxhi Shala, as he was being tried in another process at the Special Court in The Hague.

The Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo filed an indictment on December 30, 2022, against former deputy Haxhi Shala, Arbër Krasniqi, Sahit Mataj, Përparim Përvatica, Ilirjan Hysenaj, Granit Halilaj, and Dardan Gashi. They are accused of falsifying voting results in the early elections for the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. According to the indictment, votes were added through falsification for former minister Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) party, as well as for parliamentary candidate Haxhi Shala.

The post Arbër Krasniqi Denies Vote Manipulation in Favor of Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla appeared first on Albeu.com.

CEC spokesperson Valmir Elezi told KosovaPress that if the Supreme Court’s decisions do not impose obligations on the CEC, then the institution can proceed with certifying the results.

He explained that if the Supreme Court’s decisions result in obligations for the CEC, those will first be implemented and only then will the certification process move forward.

“The Central Election Commission is awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision-making regarding the appeals submitted over the results announced on June 27. If the decisions do not contain obligations for the CEC, the certification of the results may proceed. Meanwhile, if the decisions contain obligations for the CEC, they will first be implemented, after which the certification of the results will proceed,” Elezi said.

On the other hand, professor and election process expert Mazllum Baraliu considers the request for a recount of all votes of one political entity unnecessary, arguing that verification has already been carried out by the responsible institutions in the presence of commissioners and observers from all political entities.

According to him, the prolonging of this process is unnecessarily delaying the certification of the results and the creation of new institutions.

Baraliu: Vote recount unnecessary

“I think that entering a process of recounting all the hundreds of thousands of votes of one political entity is something unnecessary, because they have been verified. All votes were checked at the Counting and Results Center by the competent officials and in the presence of representatives of all political entities. Therefore, the Supreme Court should complete without delay the review of this appeal, or these two appeals, if they are separate, and clear the way for the CEC to certify the results and form the institutions. We have been delayed far too much and there is no longer any basis or justification for further delays, even by judicial bodies,” Baraliu told KosovaPress.

KosovaPress also sought comment from the Supreme Court regarding the appeals submitted, but by the time this article was published, it had not received a response.

The CEC published the final results of the June 7 elections on June 27.

According to these results, first place was won by the Vetëvendosje Movement, in a pre-election coalition with Guxo and Alternativa, with 47.13%, securing 53 seats. The Democratic Party of Kosovo, with 19.44%, won 22 seats, while the Democratic League of Kosovo, with 16.69%, won 18 seats. The Alliance, with 6.74%, secured seven seats.

The Supreme Court’s decision is expected to constitute the final legal step before the certification of the election results.

In addition to the constitution of the Assembly and the formation of the Government, deputies of the eleventh legislature also have the obligation to elect the new president, for which the deadline is 60 days from the moment the Assembly is constituted.

The June 7 elections were held precisely after parliamentary parties failed to elect the country’s president following the end of former president Vjosa Osmani’s mandate.

The post CEC Awaits Supreme Court Verdict, Baraliu Opposes General Vote Recount appeared first on Albeu.com.

LDK deputy leader Lutfi Haziri has said that the 18 MPs of this party can vote in a unified manner only if the candidate for president comes from LDK’s ranks.

The question raised is whether this is a shift from the party’s previous position, or a new political situation that has brought about a different approach.

Regarding this development, in a statement to “Bota sot,” professor Nijazi Halili said that Haziri’s latest statement brings back into focus a familiar practice in Kosovo politics: the exchange of institutional posts to secure a parliamentary majority.

“The latest statements by LDK deputy leader Lutfi Haziri, regarding the possibility that LDK could offer its 18 votes in the Assembly of Kosovo as part of a possible agreement with the Vetëvendosje Movement, in exchange for the post of President, bring back to the center of attention a practice that is already well known in Kosovar politics: the exchange of institutional positions to secure parliamentary majorities.

From a political point of view, this approach is not new to the culture of coalitions in Kosovo. However, it creates a clear tension with LDK’s earlier public discourse, which has repeatedly emphasized the need for a consensual, above-party and unifying president.”

According to Halili, this way of acting is not new in the country’s coalition culture, but at the same time it harms LDK because of the change in its political approach.

He also stressed that LDK’s aim of taking the post of president shows a shift from the concept of a neutral state figure toward an openly partisan candidacy.

On this aspect, the professor elaborated further on the change in this party’s principled position.

“Haziri’s statement, according to which LDK’s votes would be unified only if the candidate for president comes from the party’s own ranks, while also mentioning names such as Lumir Abdixhiku or himself, shifts the emphasis from the idea of a neutral state figure toward a clearly partisan candidacy.

This approach creates the perception of a change in principled stance: from the demand for a non-partisan president as an institutional standard, to a political positioning that conditions support on direct party representation in the highest state post.

In this sense, it can be said that LDK has not completely abandoned the idea of a unifying president, but has reformulated it in line with realpolitik and the new balances in the Assembly of Kosovo.”

In conclusion, he assessed that LDK’s latest statements on the post of president speak more of a tactical political move than of an ideological change.

“In conclusion, this positioning appears more like a tactical approach of the moment than a deep ideological change, reflecting the usual dynamics of political negotiations in a parliamentary system where compromise remains the main instrument of institutional functioning,” Nijazi Halili concluded for “Bota sot.”

The post LDK Ties Support to the Presidency, Halili: A Familiar Political Tactic Is Being Followed appeared first on Albeu.com.

The complaint was submitted after, according to Haxhiu, the recount of votes ordered by the Central Election Commission (CEC) revealed inaccuracies in the counting carried out at municipal counting centers.

“Today we submitted to the Supreme Court the complaint with the now well-known reasoning that the recount process ordered by the CEC has shown that there are inaccuracies in the counting carried out at the municipal counting centers, and this margin of error in the initial count is not small, because in this recount ordered by the CEC only 5,201 votes of the Democratic Party were counted, and in this recount there are 220 votes that were either added or deducted from the candidates’ preferential votes. Therefore, in order to have an accurate result, we ask the Supreme Court to approve our request and order the CEC to count the preferential votes for candidates and MPs of the Democratic Party, because the law also requires that the ballot-counting procedure be guided by accuracy and also provides for the possibility of a recount if inaccuracies are identified in the initial count,” he said.

Haxhiu stressed that their request concerns the recount of the votes of the Democratic Party of Kosovo.

“Beyond our suspicions, we now have a process ordered by the CEC, which is the recount of 185 boxes, or polling stations. This process ordered by the CEC has confirmed inaccuracies in the initial count and this is now a fact proven by the CEC itself, which is why we are asking for a recount of the Democratic Party’s votes, because according to CEC regulations, the votes of political entities are not counted by commissioners of that political entity, but are counted by commissioners or counters from other political entities. Now whether these were intentional or unintentional mistakes, the Constitution of Kosovo, Article 45 on electoral rights, guarantees that in addition to the right to vote, there is also the right that the accuracy of the result must be ensured and that the vote be counted exactly as the voter cast it. No one, under the Constitution and the laws of Kosovo, has the right to distort a citizen’s vote, whether it is 2, 3, 5, 6, or 500 votes — the election result must be accurate, exactly as the voter cast it in the ballot box,” Haxhiu added.

Meanwhile, Qëndrim Kryeziu said they would pursue to the end all the rights that belong to them.

“When we withdrew the documents together, we were told that the minor errors were minimal, so they said there was no need for us to complain, they told us informally, but these are not minor minimal errors, nor technical errors, because the number needed to become an MP is simply very narrow, both for my colleague and for me, with a margin of error of 589 that occurred in the CEC system. Then they said no, we only added two, but we saw it ourselves in person; they told us it was a small technical error, but that the process had to continue.

We have our rights to use to the fullest, and even regarding the final right to a recount we will file a complaint there as well and will seek every possible opportunity that is within our rights and within God’s justice for us to use to the maximum, because every vote matters, has value, and no one needs to become an MP with our votes. So we will use all the opportunities that the law grants us.

We suspect this because I myself was following the CEC’s official website on my phone and 589 were added to me, and I was told it was a technical error, while in the response to the complaint they told me only 2 votes. Whether 2 votes or 589 votes, it is called theft.

So whoever stole them should bear the burden and should learn once and for all to work without theft, without anything of the sort,” Kryeziu said.

On Monday, the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP) dismissed as unfounded the complaints of Bekim Haxhiu and Qëndrim Kryeziu, parliamentary candidates from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), who had sought a full recount of the preferential votes of the candidates of this political entity following the recount of 185 regular polling stations.

The post Haxhiu and Kryeziu Turn to the Supreme Court, Seek Full Recount of PDK Preferential Votes appeared first on Albeu.com.

He said that his lawyer is preparing the appeal, which, according to him, will be submitted within the legal deadline, IndeksOnline reports.

“The deadline for submitting the appeal is until tomorrow at 12:30, but I believe my lawyer will file it with the Supreme Court tomorrow morning,” Haxhiu said.

According to him, there is sufficient legal basis for a recount of the votes for PDK candidates, and he expects the Supreme Court to issue a decision in favor of his request.

“I believe the Supreme Court will issue a ruling in my favor, because there are grounds for the votes of PDK candidates to be recounted,” Haxhiu said.

A day earlier, he had expressed doubts about the vote recount process ordered by the Central Election Commission (CEC), claiming that the samples for the recount were not selected randomly and that changes in the candidates’ results were found at 185 polling stations.

Haxhiu had stressed that the appeal aims to ensure an accurate election result and to guarantee respect for the citizens’ vote.

The post Bekim Haxhiu announces appeal to the Supreme Court, seeks recount of votes for PDK candidates appeared first on Albeu.com.