Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07PRISTINA414
2007-05-28 15:37:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Pristina
Cable title:  

KOSOVO: REAL WORK ON NOVEMBER ELECTIONS NEEDS TO

Tags:  PGOV KDEM EAID UNMIK YI 
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FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7398
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1172
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000414 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR
DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/25/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM EAID UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: REAL WORK ON NOVEMBER ELECTIONS NEEDS TO
BEGIN NOW

Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000414

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR
DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/25/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM EAID UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: REAL WORK ON NOVEMBER ELECTIONS NEEDS TO
BEGIN NOW

Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The Transition Working Group on Elections
has finished work and submitted a report of its four months
of deliberations at the May 21 meeting of the Strategic Group
on Transition, headed by UNMIK SRSG Joachim Ruecker. While
there was early agreement on proportional voting based on an
open list with Kosovo as one electoral district, the working
group could not reach consensus on either a threshold for
Albanian parties or who should lead the drafting of
election-related laws required by the Ahtisaari final status
proposal. Elections experts from the OSCE Mission in Kosovo
have developed a timeline for holding central elections in
Kosovo on November 24, 2007, but meeting this deadlines will
require substantial work beginning as early as next month.
The first steps will be creating a functioning Central
Election Commission (CEC),set up in accordance with the
Ahtisaari proposal, and completing first drafts of new
election-related laws by the end of June 2007. The
transition group has done decent early work at arriving at
political consensus on key issues. We will need, however, to
make certain the CEC is able to function effectively to meet
the November elections target date, urge the government to
draft elections-related laws, and keep the OSCE from
interfering in the consensus among Kosovar political parties
to have central and municipal elections on the same day.
Maintaining an early election timeline will also be critical
to keeping the Unity Team even remotely unified in the
transition period -- without the promise of early elections,
opposition members of the team are likely to defect as soon
as independence is declared. END SUMMARY.

Progress made in gaining agreement on parties on elections
timing, other issues


2. (SBU) The main attraction at the May 21 meeting of the
Strategic Group on Transition was a briefing by Deputy PM
Lutfi Haziri and OSCE Mission in Kosovo HOM Amb. Werner

Wnendt on the completion of work by the Transition Working
Group on Elections. This working group met thirteen times
from January 9 through May 4, 2007 and reached consensus on
all but two of the issues presented to it for discussion.
Given strict marching orders from Kosovo's Unity Team,
members of the working group quickly decided on a
proportional voting system using open lists, with Kosovo as a
single electoral district. Subsequent agreement was also
obtained on balancing gender representation (30 percent);
electing mayors directly; transferring authority for
political party registration to the CEC; establishing an
ad-hoc quasi-judicial body within the CEC to handle election
appeals; updating the voters' lists and continuing the use of
conditional ballots; confirming the use of voter eligibility
criteria set forth in the Ahtisaari proposal; allowing
candidates to run in both central and local elections
provided they choose between one of the mandates; giving the
President the responsibility to announce the date for
elections and the CEC the responsibility for confirming the
final results of elections (provided they have been certified
by a competent international authority as having met
international standards); holding elections not later than
six months after the adoption of a new UNSC resolution on
Kosovo's status; and continuing existing principles for
candidate financial disclosure and political entity and
candidate certification. The group agreed that municipal
elections will also be conducted using a proportional system
with open lists -- the results of which will have at least 30
percent gender balance -- with each municipality representing
a single, multi-member electoral district.


3. (SBU) The two issues on which consensus was not reached
were the level of a new threshold for ethnic Albanian
political parties to receive seats, and who should be
responsible for drafting the new election-related laws
required by the Ahtisaari package. All of the Albanian
parties (save Veton Surroi's ORA Reform Party) pursued a
three percent initial threshold to gain any seats in the
Kosovo Assembly. ORA's representative thought the group had

PRISTINA 00000414 002 OF 003


approved a 2.5 percent threshold for Albanian parties. The
group did, however, eventually forge a consensus around not
applying a threshold to political entities representing
minority communities. The group agreed that there should be
four separate election-related laws dealing with central
elections, local elections, the CEC and political parties.
Consensus was eventually reached on the composition of a
special commission to draft these laws -- it will resemble
the composition of the working group -- but the group could
not reach a decision on who should chair the work of this new
commission.

Despite Progress, Much Still Needs to be Done for November
Elections


4. (C) The group agreed that elections should be held no
later than six months after a new UNSC resolution on Kosovo.
This is earlier than the nine month deadline set forth in the
Ahtisaari proposal. In addition to the resolution of the
remaining issues by the Unity Team, much work drafting these
new laws needs to begin soon. Reconstituting the CEC as soon
as possible is critical to running elections in November.
OSCE election experts and the head of the local office of the
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) admit
that the current CEC is not up to the task of running
elections in November. The local IFES representative places
the blame for this squarely on the OSCE, which has done
little to build capacity within the CEC Secretariat. Our
first step will be to convince everyone (OSCE, UNMIK and the
Unity Team) to move forward in naming new members of the CEC
as required by the Ahtisaari proposal. Annex One, Article
Seven of the proposal provides that the CEC shall have eleven
members, including the Chair of the CEC appointed by the
President of Kosovo from among the members of the Supreme
Court and the District Courts. Six of these members shall be
appointed by the six biggest parliamentary groups represented
in the Assembly that are not entitled to reserved seats; one
member shall be appointed by the Assembly members holding
seats reserved or guaranteed for the Kosovo Serb community,
and the remaining three by Assembly members holding sets or
guaranteed for other minority communities. The main
differences between the current CEC and the one proposed in
the Ahtisaari plan is the presence in the existing CEC of two
representatives each from civil society and the international
community and the role of the OSCE HOM as co-chair.


5. (C) While OSCE HOM Wnendt is agreeable to beginning the
process of reconstituting the CEC (so long as he remains its
chair until there is a new UNSC resolution),UNMIK staff has
been reluctant to start implementing the Ahtisaari proposal
until there is a new resolution. The simplest way to
jump-start planning for elections in November is to convince
the political parties and entities that name nine of the
members of the current 13-member CEC to themselves name new
representatives to the current CEC and agree that these same
people will be nominated for the new eleven-person CEC
envisioned under the Ahtisaari agreement. The five major
Albanian parties that participated in the November 2003
elections (the Democratic League of Kosovo, the Democratic
Party of Kosovo, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and
the ORA Reform Party) will each get to name one member to the
new CEC. They will be joined on the new CEC by a
representative of former Kosovo Assembly president Nexhat
Daci's breakaway Democratic League of Dardania and a
representative of one of four fringe parties (the Liberal
Party of Kosovo, the Justice Party and the two wings of the
Democratic Christian Party of Kosovo) who each have one
representative in the Kosovo Assembly. (NOTE: It is not
clear to us how and by whom this seat will be apportioned.
END NOTE). One member will be appointed by Assembly members
holding seats reserved for the Serb minority community. The
remaining three members in both the existing CEC and the new
CEC are nominated by members of the Kosovo Assembly from the
non-Serb minority (Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian, Turkish and
Bosniak) communities.

Tight Timeline for Elections Work

PRISTINA 00000414 003 OF 003




6. (C) The elections staff at the OSCE has developed a
tentative six-month timeline for holding central elections in
Kosovo on November 24, 2007. The timeline requires the
design, planning and implementation of a plan for "out of
Kosovo" voting, creation of polling units in each
municipality and preparatory work for updating the voter
registry and a voter education plan during the month of June.
Design of an "out of Kosovo" voting campaign will depend on
a decision on whether to use mail ballots or Kosovo's planned
diplomatic facilities. The OSCE must give up its current
tight control over the voter registry and provide it to the
CEC so that it can start planning on how to update it. The
CEC recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the
Ministry of Public Services to cooperate on planning for the
upcoming elections, pursuant to which the Ministry will
provide digital maps and training to the CEC to determine
polling units and polling stations.


7. (C) The six-month timeline provides that in July, the "out
of Kosovo" voting plan and training of election officials on
the plan will be completed, and the process of collecting
data for updating the voter list will begin. August would be
the heaviest month of activity. The timeline requires the
submission and verification of political entities and
candidates, preparation, printing and distribution of the
polling manual and the continuation of collecting data for
updating the voter list. September remains as busy with
short periods for certifying the registration of political
entities and candidates, finalizing ballot design, conducting
a tender for ballot design, finishing the collection of data
for updating the voter list and actual data entry to update
the list. During October, the plan provides for the actual
printing of ballots, beginning the "out of Kosovo" voting
procedure, and printing out the updated voter's list. In the
month of November, polling station workers must be trained
and the "out of Kosovo" voting would continue until election
day, November 24.


8. (C) COMMENT: The Transition Working Group on Elections
has done some good early work at arriving at political
consensus for Kosovo's next elections. Members of the
Political Strategic Group (the experts who inform their
political masters on the Unity Team) have also expressed an
early preference for holding both central and municipal
elections at the same time and limiting voters to voting for
one candidate off the open list. OSCE election experts have
already begun to question this decision and are building
their case against this. We would prefer that OSCE not
interfere in what should be a political decision, and we will
work to keep to the draft timeline for November 24 elections
by getting a new CEC in place as soon as possible so that it
can begin its work. We will also press the Unity Team to
resolve the few outstanding political issues, and then work
with the government to form the commission that will draft
the necessary election-related laws.


9. (C) Comment, cont. Keeping to a short election timeline
is not only important for implementation of the Ahtisaari
plan, it is central to maintaining even the semblance of
unity among the Unity Team post-independence; without the
promise of elections in a relatively short time horizon, we
have little hope of keeping the opposition on board for
critical decisions that will require consensus, including
promulgation of the constitution. Opposition PDK leader
Hashim Thaci has already made this abundantly clear, and we
can be sure he means it. End Comment.
KAIDANOW