Kosovo to hold snap elections Feb. 14

By Agim Sulaj, Furkan Abdula and Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Kosovars will head to the polls Sunday to choose new members of its 120-seat parliament.

The election is the sixth parliamentary poll for Europe's youngest country since 2008, when it declared independence from Serbia.

It comes after the Constitutional Court ruled the parliamentary vote that saw Avdulah Hoti installed as prime minister was invalid because a lawmaker who made the new government's majority possible, Etem Arifi, was convicted of fraud.

The government, which was elected by 61 deputies in parliament, fell after the decision of the Court.

The Court asked acting-President Vjosa Osmani to announce the date of early elections within 40 days.

Osmani dissolved parliament Jan. 7 and announced Feb. 14 as Election Day.

Nearly 1.8 million registered voters will cast votes at nearly 882 polling stations, according to Kosovo's Central Election Commission.

While its current population is about 1.8 1.9 million, according to the World Bank and other sources, the Balkan nation has a large expatriate population that is eligible to vote, with more than half of its overall populace younger than 25.

The election campaigns launched by the candidates Feb. 3 will continue until midnight Feb. 12.

While the campaigns were under the shadow of coronavirus restrictions, photos shared on social media showed almost all major political party leaders and supporters did not comply with restrictions and violated relevant laws.

The Pristina Municipality Inspectorate also applied criminal action against political parties for violations.

- Political organizations and prime minister candidates

Three candidates are competing for the prime minister's post.

The Self-determination Movement (LVV) candidate is Albin Kurti; Enver Hoxhaj for the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and
the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) candidate is Avdullah Hoti.

The AAK-PSD Coalition, led by former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, did not nominate a candidate.

The AAK, which led its campaign under the slogan, "Kosovo's power," pledged to create a 1 billion-euro fund to stimulate the economy.

Haradinaj is expected to be a candidate in the presidential election.

Meanwhile, Acting President Vjosa Osmani will be the joint candidate for president of the Self-determination Movement (LVV).

Two Turkish parties, the Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo (KDTP) and the Innovative Turkish Movement Party (YTHP) will compete. KDTP led by Fikrim Damka has 26 nominees and YTHP led by Ertan Simitci has nominated 12.

The election’s main issues include work, education, justice, health, stability, normality and development.

Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, which considers the country its territory, has not been a prominent issue in campaigns.

Also, no candidate has promised EU visa liberalization for Kosovars.

The Assembly of Kosovo is made up of 120 deputies, 10 of whom are representatives of the Serbian community and 10 from other minority communities.

The Turkish community has two seats in parliament.

- No single party has ever come to power with a majority of votes

Since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, the country has held five general elections and since then no government has stayed in power until the end of its three-year term.

It has led to serious political instability by coalitions that came to the government with great difficulties and gained an absolute majority in parliament but failed due to opposing views on issues in domestic and foreign policy.

Because it is a country with multiparty, proportional representation that guarantees the place of minorities in parliament, no party in Kosovo has been able to achieve a majority in the parliament, and disagreements between coalitions have led to early elections.

In Kosovo's last general election in 2019, the turnout was 45%.

The former Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence Feb. 17, 2008, and is recognized by more than 100 countries, including the US, the UK, France, Germany and Turkey.