Prime Minister Kurti declares election victory in Kosovo

In the general election held in Kosovo on February 9, the party Vetevendosje, led by current Prime Minister Albin Kurti, won 41.99% of the counted votes and declared victory. Making the announcement at his party’s headquarters, Kurti stated, “The people won, Vetevendosje won. We are the winning formation that will form the future government.” He celebrated the election victory with the voters in the center of the capital, Pristina. According to data on the website of the Central Election Commission of Kosovo (CEC), 73% of the votes have been counted. Vetevendosje stood in first place with 41.99% of the votes, followed by the Kosovo Democratic Party (PDK) with 22.68%, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) with 17.90%, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) with 7.56% of the votes. Vetevendosje, based on the counted votes, will not be able to obtain the required number of seats to form a government on its own. The Kosovo Democratic Turkish Party (KDTP) competing to win the guaranteed 2 seats for Kosovo Turks received 2,616 votes, the Innovative Turkish Movement Party (YTHP) received 1,550 votes, and the Kosovo Justice Turkish Party (KATP) received 122 votes. CEC President Kreshnik Radoniqi emphasized that the vote counting process is ongoing, and due to technical issues on the institution’s website, data will be manually entered into the system. In the initial assessment, it was stated that the voter turnout was 40.59%, but it did not include votes cast by mail or from the diaspora. In the country with 1,970,944 voters, 120 representatives from 28 different political formations will be elected to the parliament for a term of four years.