Voting in Kosovo's parliamentary elections closed with Albin Kurti's LVV leading, but it might fall short of a majority.
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Voting closed on Sunday in Kosovo's parliamentary elections, and the first exit polls from Klan Kosova TV show incumbent Prime Minister Albin Kurti's leftist Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (LVV) party in the lead, although it might fall short of an outright majority in parliament.
According to the Klan Kosova poll, LVV is expected to come in first with 40.3% of the vote, followed by the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) at 21.4%, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) at 19.3%, the Coalition for a Winning Kosovo at 7.2%, and the List for the Family at 1.8%.
This parliamentary election is considered a key test for Kurti as talks on normalising ties with Serbia remain stalled, and foreign funding for one of Europe's poorest countries is in question.
At 3 pm, turnout was a low 28.7%, according to the Central Election Commission.
If Kurti’s LVV, or Self-Determination Movement Party, does not win the necessary majority to govern alone and he fails to form a cabinet, that might leave open the possibility for the other two contenders to join ranks in a two-party coalition.
The two centre-right parties are PDK, whose main leaders remain detained at an international criminal tribunal at The Hague accused of war crimes, and the free market-oriented LDK, the oldest party in the country that lost much of its support after the death in 2006 of its leader, Ibrahim Rugova.
The parties made big-ticket pledges to increase public salaries and pensions, improve education and health services, and fight poverty. However, they did not explain where the money would come from nor how they would attract more foreign investment.
Questions over funding remain
Kurti has been at odds with Western powers after his cabinet took several steps that raised tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs, including the ban on the use of the Serbian currency and transfers from Serbia to Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority that depends on Belgrade’s social services and payments.
The US, the EU and the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR have urged the government in Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions, fearing the revival of inter-ethnic conflict.
Meanwhile, Brussels has suspended funding for some projects and set conditions for their gradual resumption, linked to Kosovo taking steps to de-escalate tensions in the north, where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives.
Kosovo has also been affected by Washington's 90-day freeze on funding for different projects through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been key in promoting the country’s growth.
This is the first time since Kosovo's independence in 2008 that its parliament has completed a full four-year mandate. It is the ninth parliamentary vote in Kosovo since the end of the 1998-1999 conflict between the government in Belgrade and ethnic Albanian separatists, which saw Serbian forces pushed out following a 78-day NATO air campaign. Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s independence, a move backed by Russia and China, while major Western countries do.
Some 2 million eligible voters have cast their ballots to elect 120 lawmakers from more than 1,200 candidates, mostly from one of 27 political groupings. Regardless of election results, the Kosovar parliament has 20 seats reserved for minorities, 10 of which are for the Serb minority.
A team of 100 observers from the EU, 18 from the Council of Europe and about 1,600 others from international or local organisations monitored the vote.
Kosovo, with a population of 1.6 million, is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Its annual GDP per capita amounts to less than €6,000.