CEC continues to ignore the ECAP decision, Kosovo Online the only media outlet without accreditation

Despite yesterday’s decision by the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP) to uphold the appeal submitted by VIM INFO, the founder of the Kosovo Online portal, and to annul the decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) which denied accreditation to our reporters for covering tomorrow’s local elections, the CEC has still not reconsidered the accreditation of our portal.

ECAP informed both VIM INFO and the CEC yesterday about its decision to accept the appeal and to declare the rejection of accreditation unfounded, however, the CEC has yet to react,  even though polling stations opened this morning at 7 a.m.

The CEC continues to ignore the ECAP ruling, and Kosovo Online remains the only Serbian-language media outlet without accreditation to cover today’s elections.

In its decision, ECAP stated that the CEC’s rejection had no legal basis and was merely an expression of the political will of its members, thereby violating Article 54 of the Law on General Elections, which guarantees the right of media to accreditation, “since the rejection of the accreditation request was made without providing reasons or any assessment of the criteria and conditions the media must meet to obtain accreditation to participate as an observer in the local elections.”

For that reason, the Panel returned the case to the CEC for reconsideration.

In the explanation of its decision, ECAP also recalled that the CEC itself had stated in its earlier decision that the media outlet VIM INFO met the conditions for accreditation, and that, yet, the request had been rejected without citing any specific reasons.