Radakovic: Changing polling stations is electoral engineering

The executive director of the Center for the Promotion of Democratic Culture in North Mitrovica, Dusan Radakovic, told Kosovo Online that the change in the number of voters in Gracanica, where the number was increased before the local elections and then reduced ahead of the parliamentary elections, is a form of engineering, and that the problem with changing polling stations has been recorded not only in Gracanica or Pristina, but also in northern Kosovo.

“We pointed out that this was a problem even before the local elections. There were people here whose polling stations were moved to Istok, Pristina, Gnjilane, Gusterica… even though they had no connection to those places. The Central Election Commission deals with this, and I hope that one day we will find out what lies behind it. For now, we can only speculate that it has to do with which votes are needed at a given moment and for which elections,” Radakovic said.

Commenting on the case of Gracanica, he stressed that polling stations in the Marigona, Preoce, and Ajvalija neighborhoods were clearly reallocated ahead of the local elections so that the united initiative of all Albanian parties running in the elections could achieve better results.

“That’s how it was for the local elections, and when it comes to electing the parliament, those people are no longer considered citizens of Gracanica,” Radakovic said.

He added that during the local elections in Gracanica, a noticeably larger number of Albanians voted compared to the 2020–2021 elections.