Kosovo Failing to Protect Diaspora Rights and Tap Potential

"We believe that together with improving Kosovo's image and path towards recognition and EU membership, the diaspora can advance social development within the country," Gashi told BIRN.

Voting made difficult

People vote at the polling station during the early parliamentary elections in Pristina, Kosovo, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

The failure to address diaspora rights was thrown into sharp relief during Kosovo's last general election, in October, when Kosovars trying to exercise their right to vote from abroad faced a cumbersome and sometimes expensive process that in at least 4,500 cases resulted in their votes going uncounted because the postal service did not deliver them on time.

The Supreme Court ruled they should be counted, but the Election Complaint and Appeal Panel ignored it and the Vetevendosje political party, which won the election, lodged another court challenge, which the Supreme Court on Wednesday finally upheld.

Germin estimates that around 350,000 diaspora Kosovars are of voting age, yet this is almost as many as the total number of Kosovars registered with the diaspora ministry, meaning many would-be diaspora voters are unlikely to be on the voting register.

Those who can vote have to fill out two forms to do so and post their ballot, as opposed to voting online. Kallxo.com estimated that each diaspora voter would have spent $100 to exercise their right.

Administrative overlap

Illustration. Photo: Wikimedia commons/Lotty

The institutions dealing with the diaspora lack basic data on demographics and needs, experts say, and focus almost exclusively on the Kosovo Albanian diaspora at the expense of Kosovars of other ethnicities such as Serbs,...