Kosovo’s Oldest Party Searches for Election Winner

But, two days before the congress opened, the LDK Secretary General, Ismet Beqiri, has admitted that Mustafa may stay on - and that there are a number of other interested contenders.

"It is no secret, there are candidates," he told TV Dukagjini on Thursday. "This should be seen as normal. Our aim is for the new LDK team to win the upcoming parliamentary elections," Beqiri added.

The LDK was the first Albanian political party formed in Kosovo, established in 1989, when the province was still part of Serbia, then led by Slobodan Milosevic.

Under its first leader, Ibrahim Rugova, it led ethnic Albanian resistance to the Milosevic regime for a decade, advocating non-violence and the creation of "parallel" systems of education and government.

In the first free elections held in Kosovo, just after the war with Serbia ended, in 2000, it surprised many when it won control of the vast majority of municipalities.

Despite the glamour attached to the names of the war-time warriors, the LDK left the parties led by former guerrilla commanders from the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, like Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and Haradinaj's AAK, far behind.

The LDK's political dominance lasted until the 2007 elections when, following Rugova's death, and growing internal disputes, it lost to the growing PDK.

LDK leader Isa Mustafa. Photo: EPA/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

But the results of the 2017 local elections in Kosovo showed a significant increase in its popularity, when the LDK won control of the biggest number of municipalities.

In parliament, the LDK currently holds 25 of the 120 seats. A damaging split in the ranks of the other main opposition party, Vetevendosje, has left it the largest opposition party in the...

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