Kosovo votes in general elections on Sunday after a fierce election campaign in which opposition candidates clashed with Prime Minister Albin Kurti over the economy, corruption and relations with the country’s old enemy and neighbor Serbia, as the Serbian community seeks to return to institutions.
Parliamentary elections are the first according to the regular election calendar since the declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, after a series of extraordinary elections were held until 2021, and 28 parties, initiatives and movements, and one independent candidate are in the running for 120 mandates.
The polling stations opened at seven o’clock and closed at 7 p.m., and the curiosity of this year’s elections was that there were no restrictions on the election campaign, which could last until the opening of the polls. Exit polls are expected soon after the polls close, and results later in the night.
Kurti, a leftist and Albanian nationalist, came to power in 2021 when a coalition led by his Vetevendosje party won more than 50 percent of the vote and secured a majority in parliament.
Political analysts say his popularity has been bolstered by moves to expand government control in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo, Reuters reports.
But critics say he has failed to deliver on education and health, and his policies in the north have alienated the country from its traditional allies, the European Union and the United States.
In 2023, the EU imposed economic restrictions on the country for its role in fueling tensions with ethnic Serbs, cutting off at least 150 million euros in funding, Reuters reported.
A possible drop below 50 percent of votes for Kurti’s party could potentially trigger negotiations on a coalition after the elections, dpa writes.
Leading opposition parties include the center-right Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, which has campaigned for a new relationship with the United States and the EU and for NATO membership, and the Democratic Party of Kosovo, also a center-right party founded by former guerrilla fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Kurti’s government has had some positive results. Unemployment has fallen from 30% to about 10%, the minimum wage has increased, and last year the economy grew faster than the Western Balkans average.
Kurti says his policies in the north, which include reducing the long-standing autonomy of Serbs living in Kosovo, are helping to bring ethnic Serbs and Albanians together under one system of government. But his rhetoric worries centrist politicians.
“When you have a bad neighbor, you have to keep your morale high and your gun loaded,” he said in a campaign speech near the Serbian border this week.
Serbs Return to Power
Out of 120 seats in the Kosovo Assembly, 20 are guaranteed to minority communities, 10 of which belong to Serbs, with one ministerial position in the government each.
Six lists of the Serb community are in the election race: the Serbian List, the Serbian People’s Movement, For Freedom, Justice and Survival, the Party of Kosovo Serbs, Serbian Democracy and the Civic Initiative People’s Justice.
Official Belgrade once again has the support of the Serbian List (SL), the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo and the sister party of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Serbia, formed with the support of the Serbian authorities and President Aleksandar Vučić, who, on the eve of the elections, called on his compatriots in Kosovo to vote for SL.
“I am taking this opportunity to call on all Serbs from Kosovo to vote, so that it will not be difficult for them. So that it will not be difficult for those who need a day off to take a car or bus to go to their homes to vote. And to vote for the Serbian List, because the Serbian List is the only guarantor that Kurti will not expel Serbs from Kosovo,” Vučić told reporters on Saturday during a tour of a cattle farm in Melenci.
By participating in the elections, the Serbian community should begin the political process of regaining positions lost through the previous boycott of local elections and withdrawal from Kosovo institutions.
“The boycott of institutions did not bring the expected results. Therefore, returning to them is now the first obligation. The central decision-making level in Pristina – the parliament and the government – is the first step on which Serbs should demand their rights,” Radio Television of Serbia said in the election announcement.
According to analysts, the second step of the Serbs, perhaps even more important than the first, is their return to institutions at the local level, especially in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo, which the Albanians, after boycotting the Serbian electorate, have been managing for almost two years.
The next local elections are held at the end of the year, most likely in October or November.
The right to vote in Kosovo has a total of 2,075,868 registered voters, the Central Election Commission announced that 104,934 of them registered to vote outside of Kosovo.
