PRESS
Pejans argue about the electoral zones in Kosovo
Pejë, April 3, 2012- Today in the Municipal Assembly Hall in Pejë, the NGO network “Democracy in Action” held a public debate with citizens to discuss the proposal for electoral reform in Kosovo “Kosovo with 26 electoral zones”. The purpose of this debate was to consult the citizens regarding the possibility of dividing Kosovo into 26 Electoral Zones and to provide more detailed information about the functioning of such a division.
Ismet Kryeziu from Democracy in Action presented the presentation that comes from the civil society that demands that Kosovo be divided into 26 electoral zones and what would be the benefit of the citizens from this, how would the transparency and accountability of the deputies to their electorate increase.
Even the party leaders of the five largest parties in Kosovo, the branch in the municipality of Peja, AAK, LDK, PDK, AKR and VV have agreed with the proposal of “Democracy in Action”, that Kosovo have at least 26 electoral zones, even some have proposed that there be 100 electoral zones.
According to them, the more constituencies that are created, the more direct the representation is and this makes the deputies responsible to the citizens or to their constituents, since until now none of the deputies of the Parliament of Kosovo have been accountable to the citizens.
Apart from the AKR, which has requested that the electoral threshold be reduced to 3%, this proposal of “Democracy in Action” has also requested that all other parties request that the electoral threshold remain as it is at 5%.
In addition to the political parties, the citizens also demanded that there be several electoral zones in Kosovo, and they even agreed with the proposal that Kosovo have 100 electoral zones, or at least 26 electoral zones as proposed by “Democracy in Action”. According to them, the time has come to know who each deputy represents in the Assembly of Kosovo.
The leaders and vice-presidents of the biggest parties in Kosovo, the branch in Peja, civil society, citizens and the media participated in this debate. The debate is part of the public debates that the “Democracy in Action” NGO Network is conducting in the municipalities of Kosovo.
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