EU Observers Say Kosovo Voters Misled by ‘Opaque’ Facebook Pages

The EU Election Observation Mission said on Tuesday that non-transparent Facebook pages were responsible for "manipulative interference" in Sunday's mayoral election run-off contests, spreading misinformation about rival parties and candidates, although the polls were well-organised.

"While candidates shared useful information through online platforms, opaque Facebook pages were used to spread misleading content hampering the voters' ability to form opinions free from manipulative interference," the Election Observation Mission said in a preliminary assessment of the conduct of the vote.

"Candidates generally used advertisements to promote their campaign platforms but third-party ads were largely used to discredit contestants, including with personal accusations," the statement added.

The head of the mission, Lucas Mandl, who is member of the European Parliament, told media in Pristina that in general, the run-off elections were "well administered and competitive".

"The campaign was vivid and peaceful, though its tone was harsher compared to the first round. However, in the absence of sanctions for campaigning outside of the official five-day period, most candidates were canvassing long before the official campaign kicked off," Mandl said.

The preliminary statement also said that blatant lack of transparency related to the financing of contestants' campaigns persisted in the second round.

"Perpetuating the low enforcement of campaign finance rules, the Kosovo Assembly is unable to guarantee timely audit of the disclosure reports and the CEC [Central Election Commission] did not sufficiently support the implementation of applicable regulations," the statement said.

The EU mission said that in the absence of sanctions...