Opposition Party Clears Path to Parliament Vote on Kosovo President

After a meeting with LDK MPs, party leader Lumir Abdixhiku said that the party would take part in an upcoming vote in parliament on Kosovo's next president, with former assembly speaker Vjosa Osmani widely seen as the frontrunner.

Osmani, a former member of the LDK, took over the role in an acting capacity after Hashim Thaci resigned on November 5 to face war crimes charges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

Osmani ceded the acting position last week to Glauk Konjufca when he was voted in as speaker of the parliament following a landslide electoral victory for the Vetevendosje party, of which Konjufca is a member, in mid-February.

The presidency can only be held in an acting capacity for up to six months; with the government of Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti taking office on March 22, attention has shifted to whether the LDK - fresh from a devastating result in the February election - would take part in the vote to elect a new president.

According to the rules, 80 of parliament's 120 MPs must be present for the vote to be valid.

"LDK will not obstruct the election of the country's president," Abdixhiku said on Tuesday. "As always, LDK will carry out its constitutional obligation and participate in the voting process for president without prejudicing the vote of MPs."

The LDK, which led a decade of passive resistance to Serbian rule in the 1990s, has 15 MPs in parliament after taking just 12 per cent in the February 14 election, the worst result in the party's history.

LDK 'comeback'                  

Prior to meeting with his MPs, Abdixhiku convened the party presidency on Monday. He said a majority of members had voted in favour of taking part in the parliamentary vote on...