Vetevendosje candidate and former PM Albin Kurti may be barred from standing in the February 14 elections – after the Kosovo Judicial Council ruled that 47 candidates were theoretically unable to run having been found guilty of a criminal offence in court.
The Central Election Commission, CEC, on Wednesday said 15 of the 28 political entities that had applied to run in the February 14 snap elections had proposed candidates “not in line with the Law on General Elections, which specifies that a person who has been found guilty of a criminal charge in the last three years cannot run as an MP”.
Kurti, head of the main opposition Vetevendosje party, and Albulena Haxhiu, a former Justice Minister, were handed conditional prison sentences by a Prishtina court in January 2018 for throwing tear gas in parliament.
