CEC begins recount of votes in 914 polling stations after irregularities found

2026-01-13 21:58:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has decided to recount votes in one-third of polling stations nationwide for the December 28 snap elections, after noticing discrepancies in votes for parliamentary candidates.

The recount of votes in 36 percent of polling stations nationwide risks further delaying the establishment of the country's new institutions.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the commission presented a report from the verification of candidate votes for 2 percent of polling stations from the December elections, which found cases of discrepancies in votes for candidates.

"It turns out that the votes of the candidates counted at the Municipal Counting Centers do not reflect the number of votes of the candidates recorded on the ballots," the report states.

The vote recount began on Tuesday afternoon and will be carried out in 914 polling stations out of 2,557 in the December elections.

The recount is expected to last about two weeks, CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi told the media.

The Chairman of the CEC, Kreshnik Radoniqi, said that if, after the recount, possible manipulations with the votes of candidates within political entities are observed, the commission will take the members of the counting teams to the competent bodies.

Democracy in Action (DnV) – the local election observation mission – said on Facebook that the CEC's findings prove that the counting process had "serious shortcomings."

The mission emphasized that, although the result for political entities is not in doubt, the accuracy of the counting of preferential votes for candidates is "an essential element of the will of the voters and an integral part of the election result."

DnV called for votes to be counted in all polling stations across the country, saying that counting in only 36 percent of polling stations could generate new complaints and requests for recounts in other polling stations, further delaying the process.

According to the commission, a full recount will take place in 10 municipalities, while in the other 28 municipalities, there will be a recount in only 10 percent of polling stations.

The early parliamentary elections were won by the ruling party, the Vetevendosje Movement of the incumbent Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, receiving over 51 percent of the vote, or 57 seats in the 120-seat Parliament.

Of the opposition parties, the Democratic Party of Kosovo came in second, winning 22 seats, while the Democratic League of Kosovo took 15 of them.

The recount at these polling stations means that the commission will not be able to announce the final election results as planned in the middle of this month, which means there may also be delays in the constitution of the Assembly and the formation of the new government.

Kosovo lost an entire year in 2025 by failing to form a new Assembly and government after the elections on February 9 of that year, which caused a political crisis and early elections in December./ Rel