Following parliament’s failure to elect a new president, Kosovo is heading towards snap polls in which former President Vjosa Osmani is clearly planning a role.
Perparim Isufi
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti addresses parliament on April 28, 2026. Photo: BIRN.
With Kosovo facing general elections again after MPs’ failure to choose a new head of state gtriggered snap polls, the Central Election Commission, CEC, said on Wednesday that it is waiting for Acting President Albulena Haxhiu to announce the date in order to start preparations.
New elections, which should be held within 45 days, became inevitable after MPs failed to elect a president by the constitutional deadline of April 28 – exactly four months after Kosovo voters went to the polls to elect the parliament that was dissolved on Tuesday at midnight.
After a meeting with Haxhiu on Wednesday, Kreshnik Radoniqi, head of the CEC, said that May 31 or June 7 are two dates being considered for the new elections. “We have demanded as much time as possible because we need preparations and it is not an easy process,” Radoniqi said.
A CEC spokesperson told BIRN that the upcoming snap elections will be organised with short deadlines. “One of the first decisions of the CEC for this electoral process will be to change the deadlines of the electoral activities or adapt them as needed and in accordance with the circumstances,” Valmir Elezi told BIRN.
Prior to the start of the preparations, the CEC is planning to request more funds. Elezi said last year’s snap elections cost around 7.5 million euros, which the CEC does not possess, since snap polls are not planned in the annual budget.
Kosovo has been without a fully-fledged President since April 4, when Vjosa Osmani’s five- year term ended without the election of a successor. Several months before Osmani’s term ended, she expressed a wish to run for a second term but Albin Kurti’s Vetevendosje party, which backed her for her first mandate in 2021, instead proposed its own candidates – Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca and MP Fatmire Mulhaxha Kollcaku.
On March 5, when the Assembly failed to elect her successor, Osmani dissolved parliament. But the Constitutional Court overturned Osmani’s decree and gave MPs 34 more days to choose a head of state and avoid new elections.
Seeing no way to get opposition support, Konjufca and Mulhaxha withdrew their candidacies on Monday and hours later Vetevendosje came out with two more surprise names – Feride Rushiti, a civil society activist, and Hatixhe Hoxha, a former MP.
In the first round of the vote on Monday, Rushiti won 63 votes, far short of the 80 needed, in a move that stirred angry opposition and civil society reactions, accusing Kurti of attempting a “constitutional coup”.
Vetevendosje MPs spent much of the Tuesday evening in their seats, desperately waiting for opposition MPs to take theirs until midnight.
Prime Minister Kurti linked the opposition’s boycott to their poor performance in the last elections, when the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, took 22 seats and the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, 13 while Kurti’s Vetevendosje won 57.
“They do not want responsibility and power but they want to prevent me from having it. But it is the people [voters] who decide,” Kurti said in a speech to his MPs as the deadline came closer.
Lumir Abdixhiku, the LDK leader, who has selected Osmani for a second mandate, blamed Kurti for new snap elections. “We are now in the election phase and it is up to us to undertake a great unification within the LDK,” Abdixhiku said after parliament failed to elect a President.
“Vjosa [Osmani] will for sure be [our] candidate for President but allow me to speak to her first,” he added.
Osmani, 43, was an LDK official until 2020, when she parted ways with the party following disagreements over a no-confidence vote against Kurti government tabled by her party, which was then the junior government partner. In the elections in February 2021, Osmani run within Vetevendosje’s candidates’ list, which won an unprecedented 50.2 per cent of the votes.
On Wednesday, Osmani posted a Facebook video message to her supporters, hinting at a return to her old party, speaking with the portrait of LDK historic leader Ibrahim Rugova in the background.
“Last night was a difficult night for the people of Kosovo but people have known how to rise in very difficult moments,” Osmani said. “Paths that are closed by injustice are always opened by the people,” she added.
