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(signed & stamped) Legal remedy: Appeal against this decision, is allowed pursuant to Article 118 paragraph 4 of LGE, to the Supreme Court, 24 hours upon the receipt of this decision.

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Levizja Vetevendosje v. Central Election Commission

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether the ballots postmarked well before the election, but not received by the CRC, must be counted as valid ballots.

Alleged Acts: The plaintiff alleges that on October 16, 2019 the counting of ballots was completed from all those living outside of Kosovo. However, the plaintiff asserts that at the time of the counting there were 4,639 package received by the post service and sent by citizens, but had not yet arrived for counting. The plaintiff asserts that the counting period to receiving outside votes deprives them of the right to vote and participate in the democratic process.

Procedural history: The CEC held a meeting concerning the status of those ballots missing at the time of counting. The Election Operations-Election Service Division indicated that the ballots were marked for mail after the end of the period acceptable for those living outside of Kosovo.

Summary: The election took place on October 6, 2019. The ballots from outside of Kosovo were received from October 8, 2019 to October 11, 2019. The packages were put into the mail from September 19, 2019 to September 30, 2019. The court determined that the legally binding deadline is upon the receipt of the ballots, not the postmarked date. The court determined that the statutory requirement was clear and that the ballots must be received by the CRC 24 hours before the close of elections. The court further determined that this procedural requirement did not surmount to vote suppression because the ballots are needed hours before the close of the election in order to solidify a result.

Conclusion: The ballots are not valid because they did not meet the statutory requirement and were invalid.

Legal Issue(s)

Vote Verification and Transmission

Applicable Law(s): L.G.E. art 115, 117, 118, 122 (Kosovo).

Region: Europe and Eurasia

Country: Kosovo

Language of Decision

English

Court: Electoral Court

Election Type: General

Date of decision: Oct 28, 2019

Geolocation

Latitude: 42.66767183

Longitude: 21.17066236

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

BkeU15Yb.pdf
English
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Election Judgments - IFES

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Levizja Vetevendosje v. Central Election Commission

Primary Documents

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