Kosovo General Elections Set For June 8

The date of the next parliamentary elections in Kosovo was made public on Thursday by President Atifete Jahjaga.

“Pre-term parliamentary elections must demonstrate our readiness to guarantee the free vote of the citizens of Kosovo,” she said in a press conference.

“I appeal to the whole political spectrum of Kosovo for a dignified electoral campaign from this moment on," she said, urging everyone to take part, "as these elections mark an important test of the development of our internal democracy”.

It remains unclear when the electoral campaign will start and how long it will last.

“All legal timelines will be shortened, because elections are due after only 31 days. So, it will be impossible for the campaign to last as foreseen by the law on general elections,” Valdete Daka, head of the Central Election Commission, noted.

Jahjaga spoke a day after the dissolution of parliament, which occurred amid deadlock over the establishment of the Kosovo Armed Forces, which Serbian MPs refused to support without agreement on reserved seats for minority parties.

Since 2008, parliament has had 20 seats guaranteed for minority communities. Of those 20, ten were guaranteed for Kosovo Serbs, while the others were set aside for the Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian, Bosniak, Turkish and Gorani communities.

According to the 2007 plan for the status of Kosovo, drawn up by UN special envoy Marti Ahtisaari, this provision was to be abandoned after the next parliamentary elections.