CEC ignores ECAP decision, Kosovo Online still the only media outlet without accreditation

Despite the decision of the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP) to uphold the appeal filed by VIM INFO, the founder of the Kosovo Online portal, and to annul the decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) that denied accreditation to our portal’s reporters for covering tomorrow’s local elections, the CEC has so far failed to reconsider our accreditation.

Seven hours ago, ECAP informed both VIM INFO and the CEC of its decision to uphold the appeal and declare the denial of accreditation unfounded. However, the CEC has not yet reacted — only ten hours remain before polling stations open.

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

In its decision, ECAP stated that the CEC’s ruling had no basis in law and was simply 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 justification and without any assessment of the criteria and conditions the media must meet in order to qualify for accreditation as an observer in local elections.”

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

In the reasoning of its decision, ECAP recalled that the CEC itself had stated that the media outlet VIM INFO met the conditions for accreditation, yet it was still rejected without any specific explanation.