The American Embassy gave Kosovo a cautious congratulations on the conduct surrounding its parliamentary elections, adding troubling irregularities were noted by American observers.
The European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) said the elections met “many international standards” but that “procedural shortcomings and challenges remain.”
The delayed results released Monday evening by Kosovo’s Central Election Commission show that Primer Minister Hashim Thaçi’s Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) has won the elections with 33.5 percent of votes, defeating the second largest party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), which garnered 26.3 percent.
These are the first parliamentary elections in Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
The outcome of the elections is seen as a test of Kosovo’s democratic credentials, and key in determining the autonomous region’s willingness to engage constructively in upcoming talks with Serbia, as well as its qualifications for EU membership.
Thaçi’s opposition say that there are serious concerns over high turnout in two districts, Skenderaj and Gllogovc; both are considered PDK strongholds. Around a 94 percent turnout was reported in Skenderaj with 87 percent reported in Gllogovc.
"The turnout of 94 percent is statistically impossible, logically unreasonable, politically unacceptable, and legally contestable in Kosovo's reality," LDK spokesman Arben Gashi said of one of those strongholds, according to German Deutsche Welle news agency.
Some political parties said that they would ask for a revote in the two regions.
The U.S. Embassy in Kosovo reported violations in the two municipalities saying that the ambassador observed irregularities in a vote count at one polling station in Skenderaj where the number of ballots exceeded the number of signatures on the voter list.
“We understand that there were other instances of irregularities that occurred in Skenderaj and Gllogovc,” the embassy said in a statement.
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