Kosovo’s election committee details results of legislative election as Kurti toils to form Cabinet

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s election governing body released the results of last month’s legislative election, which saw Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s Self-Determination Movement Party winning most seats but without a ruling majority.

Kurti’s leftist Vetevendosje! has been looking for allies to form a government, a much tougher job than four years ago when he needed only three seats to pass his new Cabinet.

The Central Election Commission stated late Saturday that the Vetevendosje! won 42.30% of the vote, or 48 seats in the 120-seat parliament, on Feb.9. The center-right Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, followed with 20.95%, or 24 seats, and the conservative governing Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, with 18.27%, or 20 seats. The right-wing Alliance for Kosovo’s Future garnered 7.06%, or 8 seats.

The commission also said the turnout was 46.54%, slightly lower than the 2021 election.

Ten seats are reserved in parliament for Kosovo’s Serb minority and another 10 for other minorities in the European country.

To form a cabinet, Kurti needs a simple majority in parliament, or 61 votes. While campaigning, he vowed not to ally himself with either the PDK or the LDK. However, it has been over a month since the vote and if Kurti fails, the president is entitled to tap another from any of the winning parties to do the job. If the other person doesn’t come through, the country goes into an early parliamentary election.

Kurti has been in power since 2021, the first time since independence in 2008 that Kosovo’s parliament completed a full four-year mandate. However, he now faces the challenge of reviving an ailing economy after the United States and the European Union, Kosovo’s main supporters and contributors, have suspended their financial assistance.

Meanwhile, normalizing ties with Serbia, a condition for both countries to join the EU, remains stalled.

The 2026 presidential election may pose yet another challenge for Kurti; the winning party usually elects the president, which needs at least 81 votes in parliament, two-thirds of the electoral body.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a decade since the end of the 1998-1999 war between Serbia and ethnic Albanian separatists that pushed Serbian forces out following a 78-day NATO air campaign. Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s independence.