Radakovic: Voters’ polling stations changed to other municipalities, CIK brought police officers into polling boards

Coordinator for four northern municipalities on behalf of Democracy in Action, Dušan Radakovic, stated that during today’s voting, more than one hundred cases were recorded in which voters had their polling stations changed to entirely different municipalities — even to ones they had never had any connection with. He said that the voting process started in a “distorted” manner and that the Central Election Commission (CIK) bears responsibility for numerous irregularities, adding that members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were unlawfully included in polling boards at the CIK’s request.

Speaking to Kosovo Online, Radakovic stressed that it was astonishing that over a hundred cases had already been documented in which voters’ polling stations were changed.

“But not changed within the same municipality — changed to completely different ones, places they’ve never had any connection with in their lives. It happened that people who have lived all their lives and were born in the northern part of Mitrovica were assigned to vote in Istok. On February 9, for example, they voted at the Technical School, and now it shows that they are to vote in Istok, Vucitrn, Klina, South Mitrovica, and so on. There were also problems in Zvecan, where polling stations were changed — many people from Zvecan were assigned to vote in North Mitrovica, where they have never had any connection and have been voting in Zvecan for ten years. So, what the Central Election Commission has done, I don’t know, but this is really a disaster,” Radakovic said.

He pointed out that in the municipality of Leposavic, at the CIK’s request, 13 members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stepped in to fill the insufficient number of polling board members — which, he said, is illegal.

“Of course, not in uniform. That is literally against the law, but the process is being conducted at the request of the CIK. It’s surely the same in Mitrovica, or perhaps in Zvecan or Zubin Potok — I don’t have that information yet, but the process really started in a distorted way, and everything is coming from the Central Election Commission. We keep blaming the municipal election commissions, but those people are genuinely trying to make sure everything is by the law. I think many mistakes originate from the Central Election Commission,” Radakovic said.

He added that voter turnout was approximately the same as before, though it might increase in the final hour — which, he noted, is both interesting and telling.

“Usually, local elections have a lower turnout than parliamentary ones, but this shows how important these elections are for institutions and for replacing Albanian mayors in the north. So, it could happen that the turnout percentage ends up even higher than in the elections on February 9,” Radakovic concluded.