Kosovo legislative election, 2019

[bigic]

The legislative election in Kosovo was held today. The previous governing coalition was composed of PDK, AAK, Nisma, AKR and Srpska Lista. In the previous election PDK, AAK and Nisma (the three parties are headed by leaders of the former "Kosovo Liberation Army" paramilitary, which was fighting in the 90s) ran together, while now they are running as parts of 3 separate blocks (PDK effectively alone, AAK with VV splinter PSD, and Nisma with "controversial businessman" (an euphemistic expression) Beghjet Pacolli's AKR). Srpska Lista is a satellite party of the ruling structures in Serbia.

There are now 2 exit polls, both of them show good results (1st place or a tie) for the opposition left-wing nationalist party Self-Determination (Vetvendosje), with centre-right opposition LDK also gaining.

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1180906045868257281

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1180908446369173506

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The electoral system in Kosovo:

There are 120 seats in the parliament.

There are three groups of seats, each of them contested by different parties and elected by proportional representation.

The first group of 100 seats is for parties representing the ethnic Albanian majority. The exit poll is valid for these 100 seats.

The second group of 10 seats is for parties representing the ethnic Serb minority. In addition to SNS satellite Srpska Lista, a few other minor parties are running.

The third group of 10 seats is for parties representing other ethnicities, such as Roma people, Turks, Bosniaks, Gorani etc.

The minority parties as a rule always support the eventual governing coalition.

[bigic]

Official results page: https://rezultatet2019.org/Results.aspx?RaceID=1&UnitID=1&IsPS=0&Turnout=0&LangID=1
using the same iVote Demokra platform as the North Macedonian election website

[bigic]

Current results (86,02% counted):

Albanian parties
VV 25,87%
LDK 24,95%
PDK 20,98%
AAK-PSD ("100% Kosovo") 11,58%
--- 5% threshold ---
Nisma-AKR-PD 4,99%
Other parties are below 1%

Serb parties
Serb List (pro-Vučić) 6,38%
Independent Liberal Party 0,21%
Kosovo Serbs Party 0,11%
Freedom 0,09%
This probably means Serb List won all 10 seats reserved for the Serbs

I won't bother mentioning other ethnic minority parties, there are too many of them and they all in the end sell out to the highest bidder

[bigic]

Kosovo finally gets a new government. It's composed of the two biggest parties - VV and LDK, and ethnic minority parties (their participation is mandated by the constitution of Kosovo). The PM will be Albin Kurti from VV, VV and LDK each get 6 ministers, and ethnic minority parties (including Serb List) get 3 ministers. Speaker of Parliament will be Vjosa Osmani from LDK.

[bigic]

Kurti just elected prime minister with 66 votes in favour (out of 120).

https://prishtinainsight.com/kurti-elected-prime-minister/

In the article there is also an illustration of all the ministers in the government: https://prishtinainsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/emrat-total-PI.png

I probably shouldn't embed the photo as it's against the rules...

Among the ministers is Blerim Reka, who was a candidate in the North Macedonian presidential election.

[seb_pard]

Apparently there is a political crisis in Kosovo right now, anyone knows anything about it? I read some news about it but I don't know too much about the country's politics.