Kosovo’s parliament elects a new president, avoiding early elections

Kosovo’s parliament elected economist Justina Shiroka Pula as the country’s president, a largely ceremonial post, only shortly before the constitutional deadline expired, thereby avoiding another round of early elections in one of Europe’s poorest countries.

She received 81 votes, one more than the minimum required, in the 120-seat parliament, in the early hours of Wednesday. Failure to elect a new president would have led to early parliamentary elections in Kosovo, as happened in June.

“This mandate does not belong to just one person. It belongs to our citizens… I will be president of all citizens,” Shiroka Pula said after the vote.

Shiroka Pula’s election came after an agreement between Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s ruling Vetëvendosje party and the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo to limit the powers of the Hague-based Kosovo war crimes court.

Police used tear gas and water cannon on Monday to disperse protesters demanding that the changes be approved. Critics have claimed that the sentences handed down by the Hague court are too harsh.

On 16 September, the court sentenced former president Hashim Thaçi and three other people to a total of 81 years in prison for war crimes during the 1998-1999 conflict, which led to Kosovo’s secession from Serbia.

The post of president in Kosovo is largely ceremonial, but it has often been a source of political instability, since electing the head of state requires a two-thirds majority in parliament and the parties have had difficulty agreeing on a candidate.

Shiroka Pula, born in 1953, is president of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo and a professor of economics. She served as minister of Economy from 2008 to 2011, as Reuters reports.