On Tuesday, the Basic Prosecution in Mitrovica ordered the Municipal Election Commission to restart the ballot count at the Municipal Centre in South Mitrovica, following reports of irregularities.

The counting process for the runoff election in South Mitrovica, held on November 9, was suspended on Monday evening by order of the Basic Prosecution, who ordered a recount on the following day.

“This decision follows a notification from CETIS, a company responsible for printing the ballots for Kosovo’s municipal elections, which explained that the issue occurred exclusively in one of the four heads/plates of the color printers responsible for printing the polling station number. The company took full responsibility for this error, stating that, under normal circumstances, such a mistake would have been nearly impossible,” read the Prosecution’s statement.

Blerim Sallahu, the acting Minister of Justice and a Vetevendosje official, requested that measures be taken against the Chief Prosecutor of Mitrovica, Njazi Rexha.

In his letter addressed to the acting Chief State Prosecutor, Besim Kelmendi, Sallahu emphasised that the case had initially fallen under the competence of another prosecutor.

“Initially, the competent prosecutor for the case was State Prosecutor Shpëtim Peci. However, in the meantime, the case was taken over by the Chief Prosecutor of the Basic Prosecution in Mitrovica, Njazi Rexha, without providing any explanation to the parties involved or to the public, and he decided to suspend the vote-counting process,” wrote Sallahu.

Sallahu requested the exclusion of Rexha from further handling of the case, and requested that the case be transferred to the jurisdiction of the State Prosecutor, for the  “efficient development of the procedure and to avoid a conflict of interest.'”

During a press conference on Tuesday, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, called for a re-vote in the South Mitrovica runoff.

“Today, we will submit the case to the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, ECAP, and request that the footage from the classroom cameras be reviewed by the Prosecution. We demand a re-vote in Mitrovica. This will also be requested formally by ECAP,”  Gruda declared.

To preserve the integrity of the ballot-counting process, the Basic Prosecution in Mitrovica noted that they had, “assigned two police investigators who will be present at all times until the recount is completed.”

Kosovo Elects Mayors in 18 Runoffs

In a public statement released on Monday the Central Election Commission, CEC, noted that an error had occurred in printing the polling station codes.

“The CEC has communicated with the company responsible for printing the ballots, which admitted that the mistake might have happened in the mechanical printer that stamps the variable data,” the statement read.

The CEC further clarified that the total number of printed ballots was correctly recorded.

“Moreover, for each polling station, the printed ballots have serial numbers marked on their master copies, which fully correspond with the number of ballots received and verified so far at the Municipal Centres of South Mitrovica and Gjakova,” they added, emphasizing that, “the ballots contain multiple security features that ensure they cannot be forged or duplicated.”

Later on Tuesday, the CEC confirmed that it had received an official explanation from CETIS regarding the printing errors found on some ballots in South Mitrovica and Gjakova.

According to CETIS, a full internal investigation revealed that, “the issue occurred only in one of the four printer heads that print the polling station number. Since the control system monitors only the serial number (QR code), the error went undetected during printing.”

“CETIS takes full responsibility for this technical error, emphasising once again that the ballots contain numerous security features that make forgery impossible,” the company’s response stated.

The runoff results in South Mitrovica showed Peci winning with 53.47% of the votes, while Tahiri received 46.53%, a difference of 2,315 votes.