PM Thaci Declares Victory in Kosovo Election

Results

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has declared victory in the parliamentary polls, which took place on December, 12th. With official results not yet in, exit polls show that the prime minister's Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, won 31 per cent of the vote, while the country's second largest party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, came in second with 25 per cent. If Thaci's party is declared the winner, he will still need to find coalition partners in order to form a government. The exit poll, conducted by the Gani Bobi Centre in Kosovo, also showed that nationalist Albin Kurti and his Vetevendosje party garnered 17 per cent of the vote, while the party of former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Ramush Haradinaj won 12 per cent. Democracy in Action, a coalition of Kosovo NGOs, published preliminary results this morning that generally mirrored the Gani Bobi exit poll. The data from their 5,000 election monitors, covering 51.8 per cent of the polling stations in the country, show that the PDK garnered 30.69 per cent of the vote, followed by the LDK with 26.2. Coming in third with 12.28 per cent is Vetevendosje, while Haradinaj's Alliance for the future of Kosovo took fourth place with 10.89 per cent of the vote, Democracy in Action data show.

Parties

Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK

The PDK is Kosovo’s largest political party and currently leads the government, with party leader Hashim Thaci the incumbent Prime Minister. The party was founded on May 14, 1999, from the political wing of the Kosovo Liberation Army. It was first named the Party for the Democratic Progress of Kosovo, but in May 21, 2000, changed to the Democratic Party of Kosovo. PDK’s Bajram Rexhepi was Kosovo’s first post-war prime minister, after the party secured second place in the 2001 elections and formed a coalition with the LDK, Democratic League of Kosovo. The PDK again came second in the 2004 elections but this time did not form a coalition. In the November 2007 poll the party came to power with the largest share of the votes with 37 seats. Hashim Thaci, the former political leader of the KLA, then formed a government with the second-place LDK, which had been weakened by the creation of a splinter party, the Democratic League of Dardania, LDD. Although the PDK originally had Socialist tendencies, including agreements with the Labour Party in the UK, it now sees its policies as firmly on the centre right. It’s heartland is the Drenica region of central Kosovo, but it has municipalities throughout the country, including the city of Prizren. In the November 2009 local elections, the PDK again secured the highest number of votes. The PDK, and particularly its leader Thaci, has had a rocky relationship with the other party to have emerged from the ranks of the KLA, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo led by Ramush Haradinaj. Thaci and the party have come under sustained pressure from the international community in 2010 to clean up politics in Kosovo. One of its most powerful and popular members, the current Minister of Transport Fatmir Limaj, is currently under investigation by the EU rule of law mission, EULEX, over his ministry’s handling of road tenders. He has denied all wrong doing. The PDK’s 2007 coalition with the LDK began to fracture following the 2009 elections and collapsed in October 2010, sparking the December 12 snap poll.

Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK

The LDK is Kosovo’s oldest party, and currently the second-largest. It was the junior partner in the PDK-led coalition government. In response to the removal of Kosovo’s autonomy in 1989 by Slobodan Milosevic, the Democratic League of Kosovo was formed by a group of intellectuals headed by Ibrahim Rugova, seen as the pacifist leader of Kosovo’s struggle for independence. During the 1990s, the party, which was banned by the Yugoslavian authorities, led the Kosovo Albanian parallel structures, successful calling for boycotts of the census by ethnic Albanians and organising a referendum on self-determination in 1992, in which 87 per cent of the Albanian population in Kosovo voted for independence. The party has played a part in every post-war government, winning the 2001 and 2004 elections. Rugova was Kosovo’s president from 2002 to 2006, until he died of lung cancer. After the death of this figure of Kosovo’s peaceful struggle for independence, the battle for the leadership of the party led to a split, with the formation of the Democratic League of Dardania, LDD, led by then-speaker of parliament Nexhat Daci. In the November 2007 elections, the party came second, securing 27 seats, to the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and formed a coalition government. Its leader, Fatmir Sejdiu, was also president of the country until the constitutional court ruled in September 2010 that he could not hold both positions. He then resigned as President, while retaining the position of the LDK’s head in the run-up to internal party elections in late November. Relations with the PDK had been strained during the local elections in November 2009, particularly over the bitter campaign for the mayoralty of Pristina and the formation of local-level coalitions between the LDK and other parties, but the parties continued to work together in government until Sejdiu shocked the political scene by cancelling the coalition in October 2010, which in turn led to parliament being dissolved. During this time, the LDK was facing internal problems as potential successors to Sejdiu jostled for positions. Former LDK health minister and prime minister in exile Bujar Bukoshi sided with the late Rugova’s son, Uke, who has recently entered politics, to take over the party but instead ended up forming a splinter group which is running alongside the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, in the December elections. The popular mayor of Pristina, Isa Mustafa, instead emerged as the leader following the internal elections. The LDK are expected to remain the country's second largest party. Its policies are broadly centre-right.

Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK

The AAK was formed in 2000 by former KLA commander Ramush Haradinaj. Following the 2004 election, the third place AAK formed a government coalition with the LDK, and Haradinaj became prime minister in December that year. His time leading the country, however, was short lived as he resigned from the position in March 2005 after learning that he had been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, for war crimes. In his absence Agim Ceku assumed the position. He was acquitted by the tribunal in April 2008 and returned to a hero’s welcome in Kosovo and resumed his duties as president of the party, although he is not a member of parliament as he could not stand in the November 2007 elections. The party gained the fourth-highest number of votes and has 11 seats in parliament. The AAK’s support base is in the west of the country, from where Haradinaj hails, and it has been largely unsuccessful in carving out new strongholds outside of this area. Despite this, Haradinaj was widely seen as the main alternative to Hashim Thaci for prime minister of the country. In the 2009 local elections, the AAK made the biggest gains of any political parties in terms of overall votes in the mayoral and assembly poll, although this translated into only one extra mayor for the party. In July 2010, the ICTY ruled that Haradinaj should face a retrial, which has deprived the AAK of their charismatic leader for the election campaign, although he remains the party’s top candidate on the ballot. The AAK has been boosted by the inclusion of the LDK faction, including Rugova’s son, on their candidate list. Ideologically, the AAK is centre-right.

New Kosovo Alliance, AKR

Formed in March 2006 by millionaire businessman Behgjet Pacolli, the AKR had an immediate impact on the political scene by taking 12 per cent of votes in the November 2007 elections, pushing the AAK into fourth place. It has 11 deputies in the assembly. Pacolli is considered by some to be the richest ethnic Albanian. He made his wealth through the Swiss-based building firm Mabetex, which has secured a number of major contracts in Russia and Kazakhstan. Its early electoral success, however, was not repeated in the local polls of November 2009, when it formed an alliance with the Democratic League of Dardania, LDD. Its municipal assembly result fell from 11.55 per cent to 8.3 per cent compared to the 2007 elections. The election did, however, see the emergence of a popular new figure in the party, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, who came close to causing an upset in the traditionally AAK municipality of Gjakova. She has been proposed as their candidate for prime minister. In line with its business roots, the party is centre-right with a strong emphasis on a free market economy. For the December poll, the AKR has aligned itself to an extraordinary range of small parties, including the Green Party of Kosovo, Justice Party and Social Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Agim Ceku. It is seen as a potential coalition partner for the PDK if Thaci’s party remain the largest after the vote.

Democratic League of Dardania, LDD

LDD was created in 2007 following disagreements over who should lead the LDK in the wake of President Rugova’s death. It was established by the former Speaker of the Assembly, Nexhat Daci, following his unsuccessful bid to become leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo. Ideoligically, however, it has not departed from its LDK, centre-right roots.

Independent Liberal Party, SLS

The Independent Liberal Party was formed in 2006, securing five seats in the national assembly in the 2007 elections, making it the largest party representing Serbs in Kosovo. The SLS is part of the PDK-led government coalition and has two ministers in the cabinet. Led by Slobodan Petrovic, the party secured the mayoralty in three municipalities in the November 2009 local elections: the Serb-majority areas of Gracanica, Strpce and Kllokot. Although the party does not recognise Kosovo’s independence, it aims to ‘protect the interests of the Serb communities in Kosovo-Metohija’.

Levizja Vetevendosje

The grassroots protest movement has turned political party for the December election. Self-determination has built up a strong network of activists across the country in its previous guise, campaigning against the international supervision of Kosovo. It is well-known for its imaginative and sometimes witty protests and graffiti, but has also been widely criticised on a number of occasions for damaging EULEX vehicles. Albin Kurti, the enfant terrible of Kosovo’s political scene, remains, however, very popular and garnered huge support when he faced trial over his involvement in a 2007 protests, during which two of his supporters were killed by UN police. It is one of only a few parties to have published a programme for the elections, which includes unification with Albania, removal of the Ahtisaari package and a more left-wing approach to economics.

Fryma a Re, FER

Fryma e Re, which roughly translates as ‘New Spirit’, emerged from Kosovo’s civil society only in October 2010. The party embraces liberal-democratic ideals and has been supported by its British sister party. Its members include a range of young, Western-educated business, academic and civil society leaders, and it stands out from other parties for its inclusion of well-known women in its central organisation and its comprehensive programme. Party president Shpend Ahmeti studied at Harvard and has worked for the World Bank before leading a public policy thinktank, GAP, in Kosovo. His team includes Ilir Deda, former director of the research institute KIPRED, renowned businesswoman Linda Shala and Mitrovica-based civil society activist Valdete Idrizi. FER is emphasising anti-corruption and technical expertise in its campaign, and its priorities include sustainable economic development, health and education. Given its clean slate, it could be a potential coalition partner for many of the bigger parties, but it has refused to be drawn in public on which parties it would countenance joining a coalition with.

Source: Kosovo Election 2010 - Balkan Insight