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Supporters of the left movement Vetevendosje celebrate in Pristina
Photo: FLORION GOGA / REUTERS
According to preliminary results, the left-wing movement Vetevendosje (self-determination) is ahead in the parliamentary elections in Kosovo, according to the news agency Reuters.
After around half of the votes have been counted, the opposition party is said to be in the lead with around 48 percent.
An election day poll reported by the dpa news agency came to a similar result.
Accordingly, Vetevendosje won 42 percent of the vote on Sunday, as the Pipos Institute announced after the polling stations closed at 7 p.m.
The long-standing ruling party PDK (Democratic Party of Kosovo) received around 18 percent of the vote, according to the first results from Reuters, while the most recently ruling conservative LDK (Democratic League of Kosovo) received almost 14 percent.
The result reflects the desire of many Kosovars for fundamental change.
The Vetevendosje, led by the former activist Albin Kurti, has mainly rallied younger and more fresh politicians.
She wants to eliminate the abuses that have been rampant in the country for decades, such as corruption, nepotism and economic backwardness.
Many people chalk them up to the political guard that has largely determined the fortunes of Kosovo for the past three decades.
Albin Kurti wants to become Prime Minister
After the results of the survey became known, rallies began at the headquarters of Vetevendosje in Pristina.
Activists and sympathizers celebrated Kurti, who was Prime Minister from February to June 2020.
He is aiming again for the highest government office.
However, the election commission had removed him from the list of candidates for his movement.
The reason was a criminal record that he had obtained in 2018 for a tear gas attack three years earlier in parliament.
Kurti believes that the new parliament can elect him to prime minister, even if he does not have a mandate.
Perhaps this is not so clear from the constitution.
Kosovo, now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, split off from Serbia after the UCK uprising and NATO intervention.
It was then under UN administration until it declared itself independent in 2008.
More than 100 countries, including Germany, but not Russia and Serbia, have recognized the Republic of Kosovo.
In all probability, Kurti will need coalition partners despite his party's clear election victory.
Before the election, he had ruled out a collaboration with the PDK, which had emerged from the civil war militia UCK, as well as one with the Serbian list controlled from Belgrade - which should win all ten mandates reserved for the Serbian minority.
The LDK is also likely to withdraw as a partner.
She had terminated the coalition with Vetevendosje formed after the last election in October 2019 under pressure from the US administration at the time.
The LDK politician Avdullah Hoti had inherited Kurti as head of government with the help of other partners, including the ex-UCK party AAK (Alliance for the Future of Kosovo).
Hoti's election in parliament was not legitimate, as the Constitutional Court subsequently found.
One of the MPs did not have the right to vote in the extremely close vote, in which every vote counted, because he had been convicted of fraud.
That is why the third early parliamentary election in four years took place on Sunday.
In any case, it led to the departure of the old guard from the ranks of the KLA, whose main representatives could no longer stand.
Hashim Thaci, the former commander of the KLA and long-time chairman of the PDK, shaped politics in Kosovo like no other as prime minister or president.
Since November 2020 he has been in custody at the Kosovo Special Tribunal in The Hague.
He is charged with war crimes during the UCK armed uprising in 1998/99.
The PDK boss Kadri Veseli, who was chief of the KLA's secret service during the uprising, is also in custody in The Hague.
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kfr / dpa / Reuters