The Supreme Court asks the ECAP to review the request for a re-election in Junik

2025-10-22 14:46:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Supreme Court has accepted the appeal of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), asking the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP) to review the request for a re-run in Junik for the local elections held on October 12.

The Supreme Court did not accept as fair and legal the decision of the ECAP to reject the AAK's complaint against the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and argued that this complaint should have been treated on the basis of its merits and not dismissed as inadmissible.

The ECAP had assessed as inadmissible the complaint of the AAK, which, among other things, had requested that the municipal elections be declared illegal and that the Municipality of Junik go to a re-run due to the violations mentioned in the complaint, which had affected the election result.

On October 14, AAK had complained to the ECAP, claiming that there are suspicions of manipulations during the electoral process in the Municipality of Junik, specifically an unusual increase in the number of voters only in the last two months until September in a manner inconsistent with the trend of previous years and with the real number of residents in the municipality, including in the voter lists people with surnames that do not exist in any known family or neighborhood of Junik, an increase in voters who do not live, reside and have no factual connection with the territory of the municipality.

AAK had argued that these claims could be easily verified by the relevant institutions, through civil registries and tax records, but also through testimony from the local community.

"The matter has been returned for retrial, to the ECAP ," said the Supreme Court, requesting that the ECAP avoid the identified legal violations in the retrial and decide on the merits regarding the complaint of the AAK political entity.

In the decision, the Supreme Court said that the ECAP wrongly decided to reject the complaint, as AAK had complained about irregularities during voting day and not against the preliminary results published by the Central Election Commission.

Regarding the claims about the increase in the number of voters in Junik, the Basic Prosecution Office in Peja confirmed to Radio Free Europe on October 16 that it has launched investigations into whether people who are not residents of this territory voted in this municipality.

The Basic Prosecution Office in Peja said that they are looking into whether there are elements of committing any criminal offense related to the misuse of official duty.

According to data from the Central Election Commission in Junik, 4,846 people were eligible to vote in the local elections on October 12. Of these, 2,519 people voted.

Meanwhile, in the 2021 local elections, this municipality had fewer registered voters, namely 4,527. At that time, 2,276 voters participated in the elections.

Junik, based on preliminary results, will elect its mayor in the runoff round, when the candidate for mayor from the Democratic League of Kosovo, Ruzhdi Shehu, and the candidate from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Agron Kuçi, will face off./ REL