As the use of inflammatory and hateful language by political parties continued into the third week, the number of ECAP decisions and fines has also increased. Meanwhile, the intensity of the campaign has increased day by day and with meetings of various formats.
The campaign in numbers
So far, DnV has monitored 582 activities of political entities throughout the country, of which 207 were held in the last week alone. PDK is currently leading with the largest number of activities with 165 activities, surpassing LDK with 151 activities. Vetevendosje Movement held 120 activities, AAK 89 activities, while other political entities (including those from the communities) held around 60 public rallies. Rallies have also been organized by parties from the Serbian community in Kosovo, where in these elections, unlike the previous elections where only 3 small Serbian parties competed, there are 6 parties competing in these elections. Their campaign is underway in all Serbian municipalities.
Freedom of assembly
Political entities were able to organize gatherings without restrictions. However, DNV observers reported that 24 of the activities of political entities were held in violation of the legislation that establishes obligations for 24 or 48 hours' notice of activities. This includes the incident in Skenderaj, which violated the freedom of assembly, as one of the fundamental democratic principles.
Public facilities, including sports gyms, cultural centers, schools, etc., continue to remain the preferred locations for organizing activities by parties, which have held 75% of their activities in public facilities.
Civic participation in activities
Almost half of the gatherings continued to be medium-sized, with up to 200 participants. Small gatherings with up to 50 participants accounted for 23% of the activities, while large gatherings with over 500 participants marked a slight increase, now accounting for 15% of the total number of activities.
During this week, there has been an intensification of cases of organized student participation in political party activities. DnV observers have reported 7 new such cases this week, in activities organized by AAK, PAI, LVV, PDK, and LDK.
Using fair and non-discriminatory language
During the last week, there has been a further deterioration in the language and discourse used in the campaign. The number of activities where offensive, inciting or hateful language was used has almost doubled – with 48 cases recorded this week alone. Also during this week, activities organized by the LVV lead in the number of cases where hate speech was used – with 13 activities, or 1/3 of the activities held. Following them is AAK with 28% of activities with hate speech, PDK with 23% of activities, and LDK with around 20% of activities characterized by the use of hate speech.
Campaign in the online space
DnV has so far monitored a total of 679 candidates for MPs, of whom 447 are men and 232 are women. During the three weeks of the campaign, up to 623 cases of i) denigrating language and incitement to hatred have been identified, especially in videos produced by political entities and distributed on social networks; ii) Hateful and disparaging language by third parties, which often appear in the comments of posts by candidates for MPs; iii) Fake news, which creates disinformation and spreads messages that endanger the integrity of the campaign.
Of these, a total of 232 cases or 37% of cases targeted women from political entities.
In addition, 152 portals (online media) in Albanian and Serbian were monitored, where over 130,000 comments were identified, of which 6% contained hate speech towards political entities . These reflect the use of hate speech in political communications, negatively affecting the public and democratic discourse of the country. Comparatively, hate speech towards candidates for prime minister is as follows:
-Albin Kurti – out of 10,054 posts where he is mentioned, 7% constitute hate speech
-Bedri Hamza – out of 7207 posts where he is mentioned, 5% constitute hate speech.
-Ramush Haradinaj – out of 3734 posts where he is mentioned, 4% constitute hate speech.
-Lumir Abdixhiku – out of 6088 posts where he is mentioned, 4% constitute hate speech.
Women running for the 2025 parliamentary elections are facing hate speech online. Of the 84,813 comments analyzed on social media, (6%) were identified as hate speech. The most targeted candidates include:
-Emrije Bashota AAK– out of 6 articles where she is mentioned, 20% constitute hate speech;
-Fitore Pacolli LVV – out of 129 articles where she is mentioned, 20% constitute hate speech;
-Besa Kabashi Ramaj PDK– out of 141 articles where she is mentioned, 19% constitute hate speech;
Gender equality and inclusion
Women's participation remains extremely low, with over half of the activities (54%) featuring minimal participation – only up to 10% – of women. As for active participation in the electoral race, among the thousands of speakers, women make up 29% of them.
A similarly low presence of women was also noted in the media. Of the 905 election chronicles where candidates for deputies were presented, only 15% of them featured women. The duration of television airtime in election chronicles was also significantly lower for women compared to men. Only 46 minutes or 12% of television airtime was given to women. Even in terms of participation in television debates, 23% were women.
Regarding the inclusion of persons with disabilities, so far only in 6 cases have they given speeches in campaign activities.
Political messages
Education, economy and wages, infrastructure, social welfare, culture, youth and sports are the top five topics and issues addressed during campaign speeches. This week, a trend of addressing topics related to the economy and wages has been identified. The Vetëvendosje Movement continues to have the north of the country and social welfare as the central themes of its campaign (in a total of 88 cases each). The PDK, LDK and AAK have had education and the economy as their central themes.
This week too, political messages have been delivered mainly by party leaders and designated individuals, without giving all candidates from the respective municipalities where the activities are being held the opportunity to speak. In the case of the ruling party, most of the speeches at major events have been delivered by the prime minister or members of the government cabinet, unlike other parties that have offered increased attention and space to candidates from the respective areas where the activity was organized.
As for the competing Serbian parties, their campaign is less focused on delivering messages related to political plans and more focused on mutual attacks and accusations of corruption. So far, these parties have presented very few clear political plans, failing to address the rights and concerns of the Serbian community.
Freedom of expression and information
During the three weeks of the election campaign, a total of 271 debates were monitored, of which debates with one candidate/political entity dominated, with a total of 139 such debates.
Regarding participation in debates by party, the AAK - NISMA Coalition and PDK participated in 65 debates each, LDK participated in 49 debates, LVV in 27 debates.
Regarding election chronicles, the major parties have dominated the television space. Out of 1283 chronicles broadcast during the three weeks of the campaign, 1014 chronicles were broadcast for the major parties (PDK-267, LDK-265, AAK/NISMA Coalition- 243 and LVV 239). Meanwhile, regarding the space within the parties, most of the time was dedicated to the candidates for prime minister and the leaders of the competing lists.
Regarding the media, it is worth noting that the Independent Media Commission (IMC) is currently non-functional, while it has begun the transition to a new website, which has caused delays in the publication of official information, including the Regulation on Handling Complaints, which has not yet been published. Although we have requested access to the Journals of Media Service Providers (MSPs), many of them have not submitted them in the stipulated time, raising suspicions of a lack of transparency and oversight.
Preventing the misuse of public resources for electoral purposes
In the first three weeks of the campaign, a total of 36 cases of misuse of public resources for electoral purposes were identified. However, compared to previous weeks, a significant improvement is noted, as only 6 such cases were recorded this week. These cases were identified in the activities of almost all parties.
Transparency and Campaign Finance
Although mainly organized in public facilities, the activities of political entities have included materials, products and services that have costs. The distribution of business cards (465 cases), brochures (212 cases), props (182 cases), drinks (131 cases) as well as services such as sound (345 cases), professional video shooting (295 cases), lighting and lasers (107 cases) and large LEDs (88 cases) are some of the products and services for which the parties have spent the most.
Also, so far, at least 13 4 cases of organized behavior of participants in buses or minibuses have been identified.
Facebook sponsorship spending: In the third week of the campaign, DNV analyzed the spending of political entities and their candidates on social networks. The data shows a significant increase in the number of posts and the funds spent. During the third week alone, we had about 3 thousand sponsored posts, worth over 50 thousand euros in the last seven days alone, which represents a tripling of the number of posts and a doubling of the cost spent, compared to the first week of the campaign.
LDK's candidate for Prime Minister, Lumir Abdixhiku, continues to lead the list of expenses on Facebook and Instagram, which have already reached the value of over 12 thousand euros during the campaign so far. Following him is PDK candidate, Bedri Hamza, who has spent over 11 thousand euros. The profiles of Memli Krasniqi - with 2380 euros; Abelard Tahiri - with 2042 euros; Vetëvendosje Movement - with 2000 euros; Ramush Haradinaj - with 1965 euros; the official profile of LDK - with 1668 euros; Uran Ismail - with 1287 euros; Enver Hoxhaj - with 1264 euros; and Krenar Xhaferi with 1209 euros; make up the list of the top ten biggest spenders on social networks for this week. Over the last week, an increased trend in spending by the political entity Opre Roma Kosova has been observed, which has already spent a total of around 4 thousand euros on sponsorships on Facebook.
Institutional neutrality
During these three weeks, the ECAP has issued a total of 133 decisions regarding complaints for violations of the election campaign rules, of which 86 were approval decisions and 47 rejection decisions. Regarding the penal decisions, the ECAP has imposed a total of 432,400 euros in fines on political entities that have committed legal violations of the Code of Ethics. These fines have been imposed mainly due to violations related to hate speech, use of public resources, placement of election material in public spaces and use of children in the election campaign. LDK was fined 113,500 euros, LVV 101,500 euros, PDK 87,000 euros, AAK 69,700 euros, Coalition for the Family 25,500 euros, Serbian List 13,500 euros, PLE-Liberal Egyptian Party 3,000 euros, SRB Demokratija 7,500 euros, Partia Kosovksi SRBA- 7,200 euros, Nova Stranka 1,500 euros, IRDK 1,500 euros and Ashkali Party for Integration 1,000 euros. Regarding security, the police took care of over 70% of the campaign activities. This week, a case of obstructing the media in reporting on the election process was recorded, for which a fine was imposed by the ECAP on the Vetëvendosje Movement.
