Political parties in Kosovo are using state resources to campaign. Dozens of cases have been identified in the first week of the election campaign alone.
Organizations monitoring this process say that official vehicles, public institution spaces, and even cases where civil servants are present at public gatherings, even during working hours, are being used.
Senior researcher at the Democratic Institute of Kosovo, Violeta Haxholli, tells KosovaPress that there have been cases of political parties being fined for using state resources.
"In some organizations of the ruling party there was a presence of official vehicles and public servants, but also in cases or activities organized by opposition parties such as PDK, LDK, AAK, especially in municipalities governed by these parties. Some cases have also been reported to the ECAP [Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel] where some fines have been imposed. Therefore, political parties are informed that these are prohibited practices, however, we are encountering it during campaign monitoring... There are about five cases that have been [fined] for the use of public resources. We are seeing that fines are imposed by the ECAP in general for all parties, so far the total amount imposed by the ECAP exceeds 100 thousand euros. This is where the violation of other rules comes in," said Haxholli.
The law on general elections prohibits the use of state resources during the election campaign period. In the first week of the election campaign alone, as Haxholli points out, there were about 20 cases of the use of state resources.
"We have encountered 18 cases where political parties have used state resources, including the use of official vehicles and public servants during working hours. As is known, the legislation provides that official vehicles, according to state protocol, can only be used by the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Parliament and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, in cases where the state can assess that there may be a risk to ministers, then the security protocol comes into play and in this case the Minister of Internal Affairs can also use official vehicles. Meanwhile, in the case of public servants, they have the right to participate in political party activities only after working hours, not during working hours," Haxholli added.
The use of state resources, according to Violeta Haxholli from KDI, is in some cases being done intentionally.
"Some are done intentionally, some violations of the rules are done out of carelessness. We think that the use of inflammatory language, the use of hate speech, which political entities know is prohibited, but those insults, insults of leaders towards each other, are being continued intentionally. Then some are done out of carelessness."
Since the first days of the campaign, the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel has condemned several political entities for the language used in rallies. The campaign started on January 11, while the elections will be held on February 9. On February 9, parliamentary elections will be held in Kosovo, where the election campaign started on January 11. (A2 Televizion)
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