Health Scare Halts Kosovar Vote Count

Contaminated ballot boxes from Serbia temporarily halted the vote count for Kosovo’s parliamentary elections. (Balkan Insight)

Vote counting in Kosovo was temporarily suspended on October 13 due to concerns of contaminated ballots. Twenty-six Central Election Commission officials sought medical help for allergic reactions and skin problems after opening five ballot boxes from Serbia, according to the New York Times. 

Telegrafi, a Kosovar newspaper, reports that nine of the ballot counters, including two pregnant women, were hospitalized at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo and treated for symptoms such as itching and vomiting.

"When these envelopes were opened they had a very heavy odor and they smelled and some of the CEC officials who had physical contact with these envelopes started having reactions, some had hand redness, itching and some signs around the eyes,” an election observer told IntelliNews.

Serb List, the main party representing Kosovo's Serb minority, believes the poisoning incident was an attempt to manipulate ethnic Serb votes, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty writes. Serb List won all of the 10 seats that are reserved for the Serb ethnic minority in Kosovo’s parliament. Blerim Vela, PhD researcher on Contemporary European Studies at the University of Sussex, writes that Serb List enjoys backing from Kosovo Serb municipalities and is funded by the Serbian government—two factors that explain its electoral dominance in Kosovo’s Serb-majority municipalities.

The election ultimately resulted in a narrow win for the leftist-nationalist Self Determination party, who will form a government with the second-place Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). Vela argues that this coalition has come together despite different values and stances to take on the corrupt government led for 12 years by the Democratic Party of Kosovo. Vela expects to see the Self Determination-LDK coalition set a “new standard for good governance and institutional accountability.”

Although more than 100 countries, including the United States, recognize Kosovo as an independent country, Serbia, Russia, and five European Union member states refuse to recognize its legitimacy.