PRISTINA – Voters in Kosovo began casting their ballots on Sunday to elect 120 members of Parliament.
Polling stations opened at 07:00 (06:00 GMT) and will close 12 hours later, with initial estimates expected shortly after.
Some 2 million eligible voters are to cast their ballots in 941 polling stations. They will elect 120 lawmakers from nearly 600 candidates from 27 political groupings. One independent candidate is also running.
In this election, the outgoing coalition led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s left-wing nationalist Vetevendosje (“Self-Determination”) party, which is leading the polls with 40% to 59% of voter intentions according to surveys, is facing competition from historical parties born from the independence war: the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK).
However, this lead does not guarantee that the Self-Determination Movement Party will once again form the government, due to Kosovo’s unique electoral system, which reserves 20 seats for ethnic minorities, out of a total of 120 parliamentary seats.
Theoretically, Albanian-speaking parties, competing for the remaining 100 seats, can only secure an absolute majority with more than 60% of the votes from their community, since 61 seats are needed to form a government.
Prime Minister Kurti, whose party won 55 seats—the highest number ever won by a party or coalition since Kosovo’s independence—had to form a coalition with some ethnic minority parties to govern.
Having repeatedly expressed his desire to retain his position without relying on other major parties, Kurti faces the challenge of securing a very high electoral result to remain in power.
