Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
Facebook page “ABC News Kosovo"(link archived) through a post published on November 12, claimed that based on sources close to the State Prosecution, urgent investigations have been opened for abuses in the voting process in Fushë Kosovë and Obiliq.
This post claims that it is about possible vote manipulation and the involvement of influential people in the local administration, adding that the Prosecutor's Office has not yet issued an official announcement.
What is the truth?
After verification by hibrid.info, it turns out that this claim has not been published by any credible media. Furthermore, the State Prosecutor's Office has not distributed any official announcement on its Facebook page regarding the "opening of investigations", as claimed by the aforementioned page.
No announcement has been published on the official Facebook page of the State Prosecution regarding the claim made to open investigations in Fushë Kosovë and Obiliq. (here)
After searching on Google with the keywords “Investigations have been opened into abuses in the voting process in Fushë Kosovë and Obiliq", no information published by the media or reliable sources has been found. (here)
Local elections in Obiliq and Fushë Kosovë
In Obiliq, in the second round of local elections, the candidate from the Vetëvendosje Movement, Halil Thaçi emerged the winner with 51,28% of the votes. against the Democratic League of Kosovo candidate, Xhafer Gashi (48,72%). The latter later admitted defeat (see here and here)
In Fushë Kosovë, the winner was the candidate from the Vetëvendosje Movement, Valon Prebreza, with 55,12%, against the candidate from the Democratic League of Kosovo, Besnik Osmani (44,88%). Osmani also admitted defeat (see here)
Verification of results by the Central Election Commission
On November 11, the CEC announced that the verification of the results of the second round of the elections for Municipal Mayors in 15 Municipal Counting Centers had been completed: Junik, Mamushë, Kllokot, Obilic, Klina, Vushtrri, Dragash, Rahovec, Gjakova, Gjilan, Field of Kosovo, Suhareka, Kaçanik, Pristina and Viti. (see here)
Analyze:
The Facebook page “ABC News Kosova” claimed on November 12 that, based on sources close to the State Prosecution, urgent investigations have been opened into abuses in the voting process in the municipalities of Fushë Kosovë and Obiliq, including possible vote manipulation and the involvement of influential people in the local administration. The same post noted that the Prosecution had not yet issued an official announcement.
After verification by hibrid.info, it turns out that this claim has not been confirmed by any credible media. The State Prosecutor's Office has not published any official announcement on its Facebook page regarding the "opening of investigations". Also, a Google search with the keywords for this topic did not yield any information published by credible sources.
The local elections in Obiliq and Fushë Kosovë have ended with victories for the candidates of the Vetëvendosje Movement, Halil Thaçi in Obiliq with 51,28% of the votes and Valon Prebreza in Fushë Kosovë with 55,12%. Likewise, the candidates from the Democratic League of Kosovo, Xhafer Gashi and Besnik Osmani, have admitted defeat.
In this way, the claims for urgent investigations are not supported by facts and official documents. Based on the working methodology, hibrid.info evaluates this claim as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The “Fake News” rating is given to informational content that is entirely fabricated or that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be defined as having been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.