Constitutional deadline for electing president nears end/ Kurti calls for compromise

2026-04-20 09:32:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Constitutional deadline for electing president nears end/ Kurti calls for

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti called on Monday for a compromise between parliamentary parties on the election of the country's president, as a constitutional deadline of over a month on this issue will expire at the beginning of next week.

Speaking at an early morning cabinet meeting in Pristina, Kurti said that going to early parliamentary elections "I believe is not an option."

"The election of the president is a constitutional duty of the people's elected representatives, and this requires a will for solutions, a readiness for compromise and difficult decisions," Kurti said.

His statements come amid reports that he will meet later Monday with Lumir Abdixhiku, the leader of the opposition entity, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).

This would be the second meeting between them, as the first one ended without any agreement on the president.

At the end of March, the Constitutional Court gave lawmakers until April 28 to elect a new president.

Since then, there has been little movement towards a possible agreement and Kurti has not held any meetings so far with the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which says it is awaiting an official letter from the prime minister for a meeting.

Kurti criticized PDK for demanding in previous talks that someone from the opposition party be elected president without revealing the name of the potential candidate.

The President of Kosovo is elected with two-thirds of the votes in the first two rounds or with 61 votes in the third round, but 80 deputies are needed in the chamber for the session to be held.

Therefore, an agreement between parliamentary parties is needed on this issue, given that no party - not even Kurti's ruling party, the Vetevendosje Movement with 57 MPs - has such a large number of MPs in the 120-seat Parliament.

If the new president is not elected within the constitutional deadline of April 28, then the country will go to early elections, which must be held within 45 days.

After Vjosa Osmani's term ended earlier this month and the country failed to appoint her replacement, the Speaker of the Parliament, Albulena Haxhiu, was appointed acting president on April 4.

Haxhiu himself called on the parties on Sunday to reach a consensus on the election of the president, emphasizing that the country should not go to extraordinary elections.

Previous attempts to elect a new president for the country failed as neither side seemed willing to make concessions.

The ruling party presented two names for president in a session on March 5: Glauk Konjufca, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, and MP Fatmire Mullhaxha-Kollçaku, but the session was not held due to a lack of quorum, after the opposition left the hall.

The next day, former President Vjosa Osmani issued a decree dissolving the Assembly and paving the way for new elections. Osmani herself was aiming for a second term, but did not secure the necessary support in this regard.

The decree was overturned by the Constitutional Court following an appeal by the Government.

The court said the decree had no legal effect and set April 28 as the deadline for the presidential election. /REL