“These were well organized elections overall, in which fundamental freedoms were respected, and voters were offered a real choice, except for the Kosovo-Serb municipalities where competition was limited. The CEC conducted the electoral preparations in a professional manner and enjoyed a high level of confidence among stakeholders,” said Mr Mandl at a press conference in Pristina today and added: “Among the issues of concern, I can highlight the long-lasting lack of transparency and accountability in relation to the financing of the campaigns of the contestants. There are, in addition, several longstanding deficiencies in the legal framework that need to be finally addressed and the time for substantial reforms is now.”

The report offers 23 recommendations for consideration. These include six priority recommendations the summary of which is as follows: (1) to modernise the method for registration as Out of Kosovo voter in order to protect against fraud and impersonation; (2) to ensure an independent mechanism is in place for effective oversight of party and campaign finances; (3) to include provisions on electoral advertising on online platforms, and explicitly extend the existing campaigning rules to the digital sphere; (4) to appoint in a timely manner all members of the Independent Media Commission (IMC) and the IMC Appeal Board through a competitive and transparent selection process; (5) to redesign ballot papers for municipal assembly elections to improve understanding of voters and enhance voter information on how to properly mark the ballot; and (6) to include provisions on challenging the final election results published by the CEC and clarify the ambiguities in the complaints and appeals process.

“Our recommendations should be read in conjunction with those already proposed by previous EU election observation missions in Kosovo. Some of them require legislative changes, others could be tackled through the regulations adopted by the CEC and other institutions. I would like to encourage all stakeholders to consider our recommendations, which we present in good faith, and finally turn words into concrete action,” concluded Mr. Mandl.

On 8 February, the EU EOM will hold a roundtable with relevant stakeholders to discuss in more detail the mission’s recommendations on how to improve future electoral processes.

The EU EOM was deployed to Kosovo from 5 September to 5 December 2021; in total around 100 observers from 22 EU member states as well as Norway and Switzerland observed these elections.

For further information, please contact the press officer of the EU EOM Kosovo 2021.

Marek Mracka, Press Officer, EU EOM Kosovo 2021,

[email protected] +383 48 798 326