Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil.
Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East.
“Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.”
Photo: Reuters
Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a 1998 to 1999 war, hosts a US military base as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping mission.
The war ended after NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s split and tensions have simmered ever since. Belgrade has had the support of Russia and China. Unresolved relations with Serbia have blocked Kosovo’s attempts to become a candidate country for EU membership.
Osmani dissolved parliament after lawmakers failed to elect her successor by a midnight Thursday deadline due to a lack of a quorum in the 120-member assembly.
She is yet to schedule the early vote, which would be the third ballot in Kosovo in just more than a year. An election in February last year resulted in no clear majority and an almost year-long political deadlock that forced a snap vote in December last year.
“It is a difficult time for the country, which I hope our institutions and all of our citizens will overcome with maturity and with dignity,” Osmani said, expressing hope that “we will once again show that our electoral democracy is strong.”
Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s ruling Vetevendosje party swept the early vote in December last year and made an alliance with ethnic minority groups to form a new government last month.
The party has asked the Kosovo Constitutional Court to temporarily suspend the deadline for the election of Kosovo’s next president.
Kurti has criticized Osmani’s decision to dissolve parliament as “unconstitutional.”
It was not immediately clear when the court will rule.
Asked about potential security risks in Kosovo and wider in the volatile Balkans, Osmani said “there is always a risk, so we need to be very careful.”
Kosovo is “constantly in full cooperation with our US partners, and with other European partners and other partners in the Middle East,” Osmani said.
“I don’t think there is a reason to panic at this point in time, but we’re undertaking every single measure to make sure that if someone ever thinks of that [attacks on Kosovo] that it is absolutely prevented,” she added.
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