Kosovo’s deeply divided parliamentarians failed to elect a new president on Tuesday, pushing past the constitutional deadline for an appointment. The news site reports this Balkan Insight Wednesday. The mandate of the previous president, Vjosa Osmani, expired on April 4. When parliament failed to elect Osmani’s successor on March 5, parliamentarians were given extra time until April 28 to choose a new president. That didn’t work.
Due to this impasse, the country is heading for a third election in just over a year, the previous elections taking place at the end of December. In less than 24 hours, parliament has met three times to elect a new president before the deadline, but the lack of the required two-thirds majority has brought the proceedings to a standstill. Only the ruling social-democratic Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (“Movement for Self-Determination”) and its coalition partners attended Tuesday’s election, with the opposition boycotting the vote.
For the vote to declare valid, at least 80 of the 120 parliamentarians must be present. The same two-thirds majority is also needed to elect a president in the first two rounds. If that fails, a vote will take place in a possible third round between the two candidates who received the most votes in the second round. A majority is sufficient there. Two Vetëvendosje candidates withdrew on Monday, but the two new candidates put forward, Feride Rushiti and Hatixhe Hoxha, also did not obtain the necessary votes.
The political instability in Kosovo is partly related to the country’s special position. In 2008, the country with less than two million inhabitants unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, but Serbia still considers the country an autonomous province. Within the European Union, there are five countries that do not recognize Kosovo’s independence, making Kosovo’s accession to the EU virtually impossible.
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