New election likely as political parties fail to agree on electing a president and protesters keep up pressure for adoption of law curbing powers of Kosovo Specialist Chambers, following its conviction of wartime guerrilla leaders.
Protesters in front of Kosovo parliament building in Pristina, October 6, 2026. Photo: Adeline Ahmeti/BIRN
Kosovo politicians traded blame over the country potentially heading towards its fourth parliamentary election in less than two years, as political parties again failed to agree on electing a president.
When deadline for MPs to elect a new head of state expires after midnight on Tuesday, it will trigger snap polls.
The issue has become tangled up with demands
But the issue has become tangled up with demands for legal changes to curb the powers of the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which sparked anger by convicting four Kosovo Liberation Army leaders of war crimes last month.
Two opposition parties, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, called for draft amendments to the law governing the Kosovo Specialist Chambers to be passed on a second reading before they would come to an agreement with the government on electing a president.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the leader of the ruling party, Vetevendosje, told a press conference that electing a President was the priority.
The President needs to be elected today, while
“The President needs to be elected today, while the law [on the Hague-based court] can follow later, respecting the 72-hour deadline [of parliament’s procedural rules]. I pledge that the law will pass its second reading on Thursday morning,” Kurti said.
“If the PDK publicly pledges to secure at least half of its MPs’ votes for [presidential candidate] Professor Bekim Sejdiu – given that we have the rest from the [opposition Democratic League of Kosovo] LDK … then we will proceed with the second-reading vote,” he promised.
Kurti accused the PDK and its chairman, Bedri Hamza, of not making any substantial steps towards an agreement.
Speaking after Kurti, Hamza claimed that the PDK’s
But speaking after Kurti, Hamza claimed that “the PDK’s stance has been and remains consistent: approval of the law on the Specialist Chambers in both readings”.
He repeated that the draft amendments to the law and the election of the President “are not linked matters” but merely coincided over the same period.
Hamza recalled that Sejdiu was not even an agreed presidential candidate within his own party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK.
Sejdiu was the joint candidate that Kurti
Sejdiu was the joint candidate that Kurti and LDK leader Lumir Abdixhiku agreed to on August 31 – but six LDK MPs then announced they would not support him, leaving a potential vote without the necessary quorum. This led to Sejdiu withdrawing his candidacy for the presidency.
Meanwhile, the LDK also said it did not support changes to the law on the Specialist Chambers.
On Monday, MPs voted to amend the law on the court to limit the jail sentences it can hand down to 15 years. The court last month sentenced former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three other former KLA chiefs, Jakup Krasniqi, Kadri Veseli and Rexhep Selimi, to 25, 25 18 and 13 years in prison respectively for war crimes.
Despite Monday’s vote backing the amendment, it still
But despite Monday’s vote backing the amendment, it still needs a review by a parliamentary committee before it can return for a second reading.
After Monday’s parliamentary session ended, protesters took to the streets to demanded that MPs vote on a second reading the same day. They blocked MPs from leaving the chamber, burned garbage bins and threw fireworks and explosives at the government building, but without damaging it.
Protests have been continuing since the Specialist Chambers’ first-instance verdict on September 16.
Clirim Haziri, organiser of the “Not In My Name” protest against the verdicts in Pristina, said on Tuesday that if MPs do not adopt the law and send the country towards elections, “this protest will not end today; we will follow your every step – there will be no [electoral] campaign for you.”
Source: balkaninsight.com
