Kosovo police took 109 people into custody in the southern town of Prizren on Friday in a large-scale operation related to allegations of vote-tampering in the parliamentary election on December 28.

The arrests are part of a probe that the prosecution launched last weekend, when the Central Election Commission, CEC, announced evidence of mass manipulation of the votes for candidates within parties’ lists.

Petrit Kryeziu, Prizren head prosecutor, said the investigation involves election commissioners from the four biggest parties – Vetevendosje, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, and Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK.

“They thought that far from the eyes of security and justice institutions, they could manipulate and get on with it,” Kryeziu told a press conference in Prizren.

“Minor mistakes with dozens of votes could have been understood, even though the CEC has no margin of tolerance. But we are not speaking about dozens or hundreds of votes but about several thousand. The falsification of votes reaches more than 6,000 for one single candidate,” Kryeziu explained.

In total, Kryeziu said that more than 68,000 votes for candidates had been tampered with in the Prizren counting centre alone.

“We are speaking about deliberate intent to repudiate the result and repudiate the citizens’ will,” he added.

Last week, when claims of manipulation first surfaced, the CEC announced a recount of 36 per cent of the ballots. But on Monday, it ordered a full recount. So far, around 51 per cent of the 2,557 ballot boxes have been recounted in a process that has delayed the inauguration of a new government .

The recount is not expected to affect the final result in terms of party representation but might affect which MPs get seats. Election rules provide that besides choosing a party, a voter can pick up to ten party candidates in the ballot.

Friday’s operation targeted mostly party commissioners. Kryeziu said that, so far, prosecutors have no evidence of the involvement of any MP candidate in the manipulation. However, he did not exclude questioning any of them, if need be.

“We have heard statements from several candidates that their image has been damaged by the manipulations … We will have no compromise against anyone we have evidence about,” he said.

Preliminary results from the early parliamentary elections showed the ruling Vetevendosje, LVV, led by incumbent Prime Minister Albin Kurti, well in the lead with 51.1 per cent of the votes cast, which means he can likely form a government without coalition agreements and so end a ten-month-long institutional deadlock. Vetevendosje will have 57 MPs in the 120-seat chamber.

The PDK, led by Bedri Hamza, followed with 20.2 per cent. The LDK won 13.2 per cent of the votes and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, 5.5 per cent.

The large number of arrests on Friday was an issue for local police in Prizren, who sought help to accommodate all the suspects.

“We demanded logistical support from Pristina and received it. We have transferred some of the suspects and some others are on their way to other correctional centres for 48-hour police custody,” Faton Alija, from the Kosovo police, said.