Electoral system for national legislature

Kosovo, Law on General Elections In the Republic of Kosovo, No. 03/L-073, 5 June 2008 [English, Albanian] (as amended by LAW NO. 03 / L-256, 16 October 2019 [Albanian]), accessed 13 September 2019

Article 110: General Provisions

110.1 Kosovo shall be considered a single, multi-member electoral district.

110.2 A Political Entity shall submit a list of candidates based on procedures established by this law and CEC rules. Each candidate list shall comprise at least 30% of candidates from the other gender according to the table attached as Annex 1.

110.3 Each certified Political Entity shall appear on an “open list” ballot.

110.4 In the exercise of his/her right to vote, a voter shall vote for one (1) certified Political Entity and may vote for one (1) candidate from the said Political Entity’s candidate list. If a ballot is marked with more than one (1) candidate, only the vote for the Political Entity shall be counted.

Article 111: Seats in the Assembly

111.1 Seats in the Assembly shall be distributed according to the system of representation established by article 64 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, by allocating:

- one hundred (100) seats amongst all certified Political Entities in proportion to the number of valid votes received by them; and

- twenty (20) seats guaranteed for representation of communities that are not in the majority in the Republic of Kosovo, as follows:

111.2 The hundred (100) seats of the Assembly as described in article 111.1

- shall be allocated in the following manner based upon the total number of valid votes received by each Political Entity: a) amongst Political Entities representing Albanian majority community who have won at least five per cent (5%) from general number of total valid votes for Assembly elections and Political Entities of the Kosovo Serb and other non majority communities;

- the total number of valid votes received by each Political Entity in the Assembly elections shall be divided by 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, et seq. until the number of divisors used is equal to the number of seats;

- the quotients resulting from this series of divisions shall be arranged in descending order. Seats shall be allocated to Political Entities according to the quotients, with the first seat going to the Entity with the largest quotient, the second seat going to the Entity with the next largest quotient, et seq. until all seats have been allocated;

- if a Political Entity is allocated seats equal to the number of candidates on its list and there are still seats to be allocated to that Political Entity, then the remaining quotients of that Political Entity shall not be taken into account in allocating any remaining seats. Subsequent quotients in descending order shall be used until all seats are allocated.

- if a tie occurs because two or more quotients are identical, the seat shall be allocated on the basis of a drawing of lots by the Chairperson of the CEC in the presence of the authorized representatives of the Political Entities concerned.

111.3 The twenty (20) reserved seats of the Assembly as described in point (b) of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be allocated to the Political Entities representing the Kosovo Serb community and other non majority communities in the same manner as described in article 111.2 of this Law, based on the total number of valid votes received by each Political Entity, irrespective of the number of seats already allocated from the hundred (100) seats.

In 2007, the open-list proportional representation system replaced the closed-list proportional system. This was due to a civil society initiative to strengthen the voter representative relationship. From 2010 onwards, voters had the right to choose 5 proposed candidates from the candidate lists.