Snap Election Won't Solve Kosovo's Crises, Experts Warn

Kosovo analysts are divided on whether mulled snap elections can help Kosovo resolve key challenges, such as border demarcation with Montenegro, visa liberalization with the EU and establishing an Association of Serb majority municipalities, which is part of the country's EU integration process.

"The current ruling coalition, despite its numbers [in parliament], cannot push forward some important processes … so snap elections are inevitable," Imer Mushkolaj, a political analyst from Pristina, predicted.

However, Dren Ajeti, from the Group for Legal and Political Studies, an NGO in Pristina, was more skeptical.

"Elections could bring about a new governing coalition but this can't be the answer to the causes of the political crises in Kosovo," Ajeti told BIRN.

The debate was sparked after the chairman of parliament, the leader of ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Kadri Veseli, told a daily paper on October 22 that, "it would not be end of the world if an option emerged tomorrow in a political agreement between the government and opposition to go for elections".

Asked to clarify whether early elections were actually on the cards, Veseli's response on October 24 failed to end the confusion.

"The coalition is stable and can hold up very well until 2018. We have extraordinary principled communications with our coalition partner," he said.

"But what we are trying to do is to ... move forward, not necessarily to stay in power until 2018. This was the context of my statement [on possible elections]," Veseli said.

Opposition parties have long been calling for snap elections, accusing the government of working against the interest of the people.

On September 1, meanwhile, Kosovo postponed a vote in parliament on...