18 Oct 2010 / 06:02
Kosovo's Central Election Commission and several election monitoring groups says they faces serious challenges in preparing for upcoming polls as snap elections loom in the country.
Petrit Collaku
The Commission has expressed its scepticism over the quality of the polls if they are held this year, a prospect that became increasingly likely this weekend after the government's junior coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, left the coalition. If the Kosovo assembly is dissolved in the coming days, as appears likely, elections will be held 45 days later, or sometime in December.
Several groups that monitor elections in Kosovo have said they are aiming to speed up their preparations for the possible snap elections.
Kosovo NGO “Democracy in Action” said it is preparing for both possible election scenarios- either emergency elections in December or early elections on February 13, as Kosovo's acting president Jakup Krasniqi announced last week before the coalition crisis.
The Commission has expressed its scepticism over the quality of the polls if they are held this year, a prospect that became increasingly likely this weekend after the government's junior coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, left the coalition. If the Kosovo assembly is dissolved in the coming days, as appears likely, elections will be held 45 days later, or sometime in December.
Several groups that monitor elections in Kosovo have said they are aiming to speed up their preparations for the possible snap elections.
Kosovo NGO “Democracy in Action” said it is preparing for both possible election scenarios- either emergency elections in December or early elections on February 13, as Kosovo's acting president Jakup Krasniqi announced last week before the coalition crisis.
Ismet Kryeziu, the head of the organisation, said that time is short for the group to be well-prepared and the organisation is looking for new ways to speed up its preparations.
Kryeziu, who is also a member of the government's working group on election reforms, said that if the elections are held in December then the old Elections Law will be applied.
He added that the organisation monitors several elements of the vote, such as the parties' campaign expenses, media monitoring, and the election day.
“It is up to the funds we receive whether or not we can cover all the polling stations in Kosovo on the day of elections,” Kryeziu told Balkan Insight.
The previous elections in November 2009 were monitored also by an international organisation - the European Network of Election Monitoring Organisation, ENEMO - which has said it is prepared to monitor the polls even if they are held in December.
"At the last elections, ENEMO was invited by Fatmir Sejdiu, the former president of Kosovo, and we expect to be invited again if snap polls are called,” Darko Aleksev, the organisation's secretary general, told Balkan Insight.
Valdete Daka, the head of the Central Election Commission, CEC, said that the commission would face significant challenges in ensuring the proper implementation of emergency polls.
While she said she hoped that early elections would held on February 13, she explained that the CEC would be ready if snap elections are called.
“If extraordinary elections are announced, according to the Constitution we are obliged to organise the polls, and we will do so by any means,” Daka told journalists on Saturday.
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