Lawmakers Trigger Yet Another Early Election in Kosovo

Lawmakers in Kosovo passed a no-confidence motion on Thursday in the government of outgoing Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, setting the clock ticking to an early parliamentary election within the next 45 days.

Eighty-nine of parliament's 120 MPs voted in favour, surpassing the required two-thirds majority. Only 105 were present, with the main ethnic Serb party boycotting. One voted against and two abstained.

Haradinaj, a former guerrilla commander in Kosovo's 1998-99 war, resigned on July 19 after receiving a summons for questioning by war crimes prosecutors in The Hague.

An election must be held within 45 days of the parliament vote, with Koha Ditore reporting that the vote would be held on October 6, the last available Sunday.

Haradinaj's government lasted barely two years, having taken office in September 2017. In little more than a decade since Kosovo's declared independence from Serbia in 2008 no government has lasted its full four-year mandate.

The current chamber had faced heavy criticism over its pace of work.

"As the opposition we faced a coalition that was unprofessional and based on narrow interests," Avdullah Hoti, head of the parliamentary caucus of the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, told the assembly. "Only 30 per cent of the legislative agenda was fulfilled."

Before dissolving the parliament, lawmakers used the few weeks since Haradinaj's resignation to ratify an agreement on administering more than 100 million euros of European Union funds for Kosovo as a potential candidate for membership.

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