Valdete Daka

Kosovo's Central Election Commission, CEC, on Thursday announced the final results of the October 6 snap legislative elections, after a month of turmoil connected to problems with the count.

Snags included ballots sent from Serbia being poisoned, resulting in CEC officials being sent to hospital, to multiple arrests made in various municipalities for falsifying the vote count.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has called for an investigation into claims that members of the national election commission, the CEC, suffered an allergic reaction after opening poisoned envelopes containing ballots cast in Serbia. He called for restraint until the probe finishes.

After the deadline for Kosovars living abroad to apply to vote in the June elections expired on May 22, many diaspora members have complained that they could not finish the process on time because of technical issues.

"I applied to vote but did not receive any answer or confirmation," Ermelina Kurtaj, aged 22, living in Austria, told BIRN.

Adnan Rrustemi, member of the Central Election Commission, CEC, from the opposition Vetevendosje party, told BIRN that his party believes the list of voters in Kosovo contains serious defects and inaccuracies, such as faulty addresses and names of dead persons.

The voting list also includes over 600,000 persons, which is more than the total number of residents with voting rights.

The European Union is set to deploy an Election Observation Mission—EOM to Kosovo to observe the 2017 general elections in response to an invitation to country's president, Hashim Thaci, Gazeta Express reported.

The presidential elections in Serbia scheduled for 2nd of April once again sparked a debate in Kosovo on whether that process should be allowed in municipalities with Serb majority or not.

Minister "confident" elections won't slow down Kosovo talks

BELGRADE, PRIŠTINA -- Jadranka Joksimović is confident that parliamentary elections in Kosovo will not hamper the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština.

The date of the next parliamentary elections in Kosovo was made public on Thursday by President Atifete Jahjaga.

“Pre-term parliamentary elections must demonstrate our readiness to guarantee the free vote of the citizens of Kosovo,” she said in a press conference.