• VV invites LDK to leaders’ meeting, the latter keeps silent (KTV)
• LDK informs US Ambassador on formation of new Kosovo government (GazetaExpress)
• 639 polling stations recounted, process ends next Monday (RTK)
• CRC refutes allegations of manipulation: Recount ends in eight days (RTK)
• Srpska List attacks Kurti after he asked extradition of their deputy head wanted of murder (GazetaExpress)
• Vetëvendosje Movement caucus grows (TV21)
• Former PDK MPs spent over 39,000 euro on per diems and hotels this year (KTV)

News

 VV invites LDK to leaders’ meeting, the latter keeps silent

(KTV)

Discussions between Vetëvendosje and LDK for forming government have stopped where the working group meetings between those political entities ended.

In order to agree on governing cooperation with LDK, Vetëvendosje has requested a meeting between the party leaders, Albin Kurti and Isa Mustafa respectively.

Albulena Haxhiu says that the invitation from Vetëvendosje is there, and that the election result certification should not be an obstacle to reaching an agreement for co-governance.

Nobody from LDK agreed to talk about this issue. Many of the party officials did not answer KTV’s telephone calls.

On the other hand, Vetëvendosje does not rule out new elections, but it advocates for reaching coalition with LDK.

Haxhiu says that even if the Nisma-AKR-PD coalition makes it into the Assembly, there will be no room for them in the government.

A few days ago, the LDK leader Isa Mustafa gave signals that he would like Nisma in the governing coalition, but he added that it is up to Vetëvendosje as the first winning party to decide about this.

 LDK informs US Ambassador on formation of new Kosovo government

(GazetaExpress)

Chairman of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Isa Mustafa and his deputies hosted on Monday US Ambassador to Pristina, Philip Kosnett, where he was informed on the progress of negotiations between the LDK and Vetevendosje after the two parties won 6 October elections, Gazeta Express reports.

According to LDK, Mustafa has informed Ambassador Kosnett on the progress of negotiations with the Vetevendosje on harmonising programs. Specifically, it was discussed on harmonization reached so far on the rule of law, economy, social policy, education and health. Mustafa expressed the interest of the LDK for Kosovo to have functional institutions responding to demands of citizens for changes, expressed on 6 October elections. He also thanked the US Embassy in Pristina for continuous support in all processes of Kosovo.

The Vetevendosje, which won the elections, has launched negotiations with the LDK, ranked as second to form new Government. The two parties have created working groups to agree on harmonizing of their programs. After several meetings over the last weeks the two parties have stated that they have agreed on most of the relevant topics but additional negotiations are needed before reaching a final deal. The Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti has stated recently that he has to sit and discuss with the LDK chairman Isa Mustafa on sharing of government’s posts and other important topics of national interest. The LDK is resisting to strike a final deal with Vetevendosje on co-governance insisting that the agreement would be reached only after certification of election results. The certification of election results might be expected by the end of this month after the Central Elections Commission (CEC), currently is recounting over half of all ballots from 6 October elections due to alleged irregularities.

639 polling stations recounted, process ends next Monday

(RTK)

639 polling stations have been recounted at the Count and Results Centre (CRC) by 16:00hrs on Monday.

CEC spokesperson Valmir Elezi explained that completion of this process depends on the dynamics of work in the CRC.

While he does not give an accurate timeline on when the election results can be known, he says the recount process could be completed next Monday.

“We cannot tell precisely when the process of recounting the rest of the polling stations ends, because it depends entirely on the dynamics of work in the CRC, but also on the turnout that had happened at these polling stations.”

“If we look at the dynamics of the recount over these 5-6 days, which is about 130 polling stations within two shifts, then we believe that we can complete this recount by the next Monday,” Elezi said.

The number of polling stations that need to be recounted is about 1.410, although initially the ECAP decision stated that there were 1.472 polling stations.

However, after reviewing the list presented in the decision, the CEC noted that 38 polling stations had been marked twice, 18 others had been recounted before and 7 others did not match the polling stations’ list.

CRC refutes allegations of manipulation: Recount ends in eight days

(RTK)

The Count and Results Centre has so far counted 43 percent of the polling stations that were ordered by the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel to go to recount.

 CRC Coordinator Burim Ahmetaj denied allegations of manipulation addressed by political analysts following the decision to recount only 1.428 polling stations out of 1472 as ECAP had decided.

Initially, Ahmetaj told KosovaPress that 605 polling stations have been recounted until Monday afternoon.

According to him, with this dynamics of work it takes 7 to 8 days to complete the process of recounting 1.428 polling stations.

Ahmetaj said the CRC has sufficient capacities to complete the planned recount process in due time.

Srpska List attacks Kurti after he asked extradition of their deputy head wanted of murder

(GazetaExpress)

Deputy Head of Srpska List, Igor Simic, has reacted to Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti’s statement who said that Belgrade must extradite to Kosovo Milan Radojicic, one of the suspects in the assassination of Kosovo Serb opposition politician Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018.

Kurti the likely prime minister of Kosovo made the statement during an interview with the Podgorica’s daily Pobjeda.

According to Srpska List, with this statement Kurti is showing his true face. “Heated anti-Serbian rhetoric continues in Pristina, even by those who want to be institutional leaders. Albin Kurti without no evidence whatsoever is accusing Milan Radoijcic and at the same time is directly interfering the work of judiciary. In his earlier statements he said that politics and politicians should not interfere justice,” Simic said in a press release. He said that Kurti’s attacks on their deputy head, Milan Radoijcic, represent a violation of the basic right, the presumption of innocence.

Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic was killed on 16 January 2018 in front of his political party offices. Kosovo State Prosecution has arrested four people suspected of being involved in this attack. Among the suspects is also deputy head of Srpska List, Milan Radojicic, who evaded justice and is sheltered by Serbia.

Vetëvendosje Movement caucus grows

(TV21)

Vetëvendosje Movement, in a post on their Facebook page, announced that the MP of Egyptian party IRDK, Elbert Krasniqi, has joined Vetëvendosje Movement’s caucus.

“Today, Vetëvendosje leader Albin Kurti and members of the Presidency Arbërie Nagavci and Xhelal Sveçla met with the IRDK Egyptian Party delegation led by the chairman Elbert Krasniqi with his associates, Xhevdet Neziraj and Fazli Stollaj.

At the meeting, they discussed political situation in the country, with particular emphasis on the recent elections, in which citizens voted overwhelmingly for change making VETËVENDOSJE! the first political entity in the country and the largest caucus in the seventh legislature in the Assembly.

From this meeting, they came out with the initiative that both entities address the challenges that the Egyptian community faces and to propose measures for the future Kurti Government so that the position of this community, but not only, could be improved more and as soon as possible,” VV’s post ends.

Former PDK MPs spent over 39,000 euro on per diems and hotels this year

(KTV)

Former PDK MPs spent over 39,000 euro for official visits to various countries, from February to August this year.

According to the data provided following a request for access to public documents, 39.227,71 euro is the balance of expenditures of 17 PDK MPs, spent on per diems, hotel accommodations, and meals, KTV reported.

The champion, both in terms of visits paid abroad and of expenses, is former Deputy Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly Xhavit Haliti, with about 9,470 euro expenses.

For about six months, Haliti received about 3,000 euro per diems, and over 5,587 euro for accommodation.

Haliti is followed by the PDK leader Kadri Veseli.

In his visits to America, Japan, Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia and other countries, Veseli received over 1,276 euro per diems, and about 4,000 euro has been paid for his hotel accommodations. Over 3,000 euro has been spent for his other expenses, such as travelling tickets and meals.

PDK MP Xhevahire Izmaku has received over 3,400 euro per diems, and spent about 2,000 euro for accommodations on her trips. In total, her expenses exceed 5,000 euro.

Izmaku is followed by her colleague Safete Hadergjonaj, former vice chairperson of the Budget and Finance Committee, who in total spent over 2,800 euro; out of this amount, over 1,800 euro was spent in accommodation, and about 1,000 for per diems.

Hadergjonaj is followed by former MP Blerta Deliu-Kodra, with over 2,500 euro; out of this amount, over 1,200 euro was spent in accommodation, and about 1,000 euro per diems.

However, not everyone was fortunate to receive thousands of euro per diems from visits abroad.

One of the MPs who received the least per diems in the period February-August 2019 is Luljeta Veselaj Gutaj, who received a little bit more than 150 euro, followed by Fadil Beka with 180 euro.

The Assembly performance analysts say that there is no transparency with regard to the expenses.

Agnesa Haxhiu of the Kosovo Democratic Institute added that besides expenses, results of the visits of MPs to the world are not known.

In addition to huge expenses, sixth legislature of the Kosovo Assembly was characterised by a large number of extraordinary sessions, and absence of MPs when various laws were read or discussed.