Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
"Rugova continues to remain the most voted leader ever in Kosovo," is the caption of a photo published on social media. TikTok from the account "muli0087" on March 11.
The photographs include Hashim Thaçi, Vjosa Osmani, Ibrahim Rugova, and Albin Kurti as political leaders and the votes they received in certain elections.
"Ibrahim Rugova continues to remain the most voted leader ever in Kosovo, from the 2001 elections to the last parliamentary elections in February 2025," the content description states.
What is the truth?
The figure of 359,851 votes cast for Ibrahim Rugova in 2001 was not a vote for the candidate alone. At that time, voting was conducted on a closed list system (you could not choose a specific candidate within a party). Citizens had the right to vote only for political parties and not for candidates.
Even the figure of 202,622 votes that appears under Hashim Thaçi's name in 2001 was a vote for his party, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK).
On the website of the Central Election Commission (CEC) in the 2001 elections, it appears that 803,796 voters or 64.3 percent of the number of registered voters exercised their right to vote. The website also provides the overall results by political party, as well as the names of the candidates elected to the Assembly of Kosovo.
According to the overall resultsThe Democratic League of Kosovo, led by Ibrahim Rugova at the time, had received 359,851 votes or 45.65% and secured 47 seats.
While at LINKS For the elected candidates, votes for each candidate are not displayed, as the list was closed.
To prove that Ibrahim Rugova, then the leader of the LDK, was not voted as a candidate, but the votes were for the party, it also shows ballot published by the CEC. It only lists the names of the parties and not the candidates for deputies.
In 2007, UNMIK chief Joakim Rycker signed special regulations to provide the legal framework for holding elections that year. According to these regulations, Kosovo would be an electoral unit and a proportional system would be applied. For the first time, open lists would be used for voting, and a five percent electoral threshold was also adopted, but this only applied to Albanian political parties and not to national minority parties. (See here and here)
Ibrahim Rugova died on January 21, 2006. The first president of a free Kosovo, he was never part of the race in which one could vote for candidates, but only for parties.
The content about the votes of the “most voted leader ever in Kosovo” coincides with the time of reports that the leader of the Vetëvendosje Movement, Albin Kurti, in the parliamentary elections of February 9 became the candidate with the most votes in any election in Kosovo. From the counting of votes so far – the process in some polling stations has gone into recounting – Kurti has received over 330 thousand votes as the number 1 candidate, while his party has received over 390 thousand. (see here)
The TikTok post has received over 1600 likes and over 100 views as of the time of writing.
Analyze:
In a post on TikTok, the account "muli0087" claimed that Ibrahim Rugova, former LDK leader, was the most voted leader ever in the parliamentary elections in Kosovo, based on figures from 2001.
But those figures represent votes for the party, the LDK, and not for candidate Rugova. At that time, one could not vote directly for a specific candidate within a party.
Based on the working methodology, hibrid.info assesses this claim as "Disinformation".
Reasoning:
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.