Albanian nationalism in Kosovo

One day after his Vetevendosje party romped home in elections, Kosovo's new leader will find it easy to form a government - but will face problems if he tries to sideline the dialogue with Serbia.

Political leaders in Kosovo have accepted the landslide victory of the Vetevendosje Movement in Sunday's snap parliamentary elections, with some saying they took responsibility for their own parties' poor showing.

The opposition Vetevendosje party was on course for a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections in Kosovo on Sunday, on a day that its leader and prime ministerial candidate, Albin Kurti, described as a "bright day" when he cast his ballot at a Pristina polling centre in the morning.

A decision of Kosovo's outgoing government to ease the COVID-19 prevention measures within the country - but not for visitors - only three days before elections, has drawn condemnation for making it more difficult for Kosovars working abroad to vote.

For two decades, voters in the town of Skenderaj/Srbica in Kosovo's Drenica Valley have been pledging their support to the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK and its former leader Hashim Thaci, the wartime political chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA who went on to dominate politics in the country in the years after the conflict.

A man in Pristina votes at a polling station in the early parliamentary elections on October 6, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

The decision came hours after the Constitutional Court ruled that Avdullah Hoti's current coalition government was illegitimate because it was voted into office with the help of an invalid vote cast by an MP with a criminal conviction.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti's government is illegitimate because it was voted in by a majority in the Kosovo Assembly that included a vote cast by MP Etem Arifi, who was given a prison sentence for corruption.

Albania's parliament voted on Thursday to set up an investigative committee to collect information on other investigations conducted by local and international bodies into alleged crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army in Albania in the war in Kosovo two decades ago.

The parliament will then present a resolution based on the findings.

"The voices of the victims are indispensable to justice."

These were the words of the president of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Ekaterina Trendafilova, when she called on victims of crimes allegedly committed by four former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas who have since become senior politicians to participate in their war crimes case at the Hague-based court.

Former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj is being promoted as Kosovo's possible next president after his party authorised him on Wednesday to represent it in discussions with its coalition partners on a potential reshuffle - and on who the next president should be.