The professor of political sciences, Dritëro Arifi, has estimated that the victory of the Vetëvendosje Movement in the elections should be mainly attributed to the vote within Kosovo, while he has criticized the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo for a lack of reflection after the defeats in the last three elections.
According to him, the influence of the diaspora on the election results is limited compared to the vote of citizens within the country.
“More dust has been created than is needed. Battles are won in Kosovo and everything is decided in Kosovo. The diaspora can give a small percentage, but without the votes of the locals it would not be this great victory of the VV. This victory goes to the VV, but it is a big minus for the leadership of PDK and LDK because this does not make sense if it loses three races and there is no reflection why these votes like this”, said Arifi.
He also commented on the participation in the voting and its influence on the election results, saying that the increase in the percentages of some parties is related to the different number of voters compared to the previous elections.
“It is an increase in the percentage because the number of voters was not the same as in December. If it had been in this trend as on December 28, the percentage of all other opposition parties could have been even lower. Their fate in the disaster is that the number of voters was not very high. They did not vote for the opposition, they just abstained,” he declared.
Arifi estimated that a part of the Vetëvendosje electorate expressed dissatisfaction with the party’s governance, by not voting – where, according to him, the LVV lost votes.
“This shows for the VV that they were dissatisfied with the way they governed. Of the promises they made since 2021, almost none of them have been fulfilled in the full sense of the word. Therefore, those 100 thousand votes are a kind of flame for the VV who do not agree with the way they have governed. And it is a minus for the opposition that they have not been able to recover the dissatisfaction that was created by the inability of the VV to produce positive policies those votes”, he said.
According to Arif, the parties that were in the opposition in the last legislature have not managed to create a convincing alternative in front of Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Vetëvendosje.
“They saw surrender as an option, that’s why they were penalized. The opposition doesn’t have a powerful leader like Kurti and the intimidation that happened by the LVV, sometimes even baseless attacks on some exponents of the opposition, they somehow felt powerless to turn the game in their favor. It’s not that they haven’t done things, but it’s not enough,” he said.
