Vetëvendosje

Kosovo's Foreign Minister Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla in Budapest in October 2020. EPA-EFE/LAJOS SOOS.

Haradinaj-Stublla quit after allegations of vote-rigging were reported on Sunday by the Insajderi website, which claimed that her husband, Dardan Stublla, bribed election commissioners to help her win a seat at the Kosovo Assembly at parliamentary elections last month.

"Fewer cases are being left for the following year, but the essence is in the manner in which the cases are resolved," said Driton Demhasaj, director of the NGO 'Cohu', which has spent the past five years monitoring corruption cases in Kosovo.

Chronicle of a defeat foretold

Workers place a giant electoral poster showing candidate for prime minister of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Avdullah Hoti in Pristina, Kosovo, February 4, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

To help flesh this out, here is my wish list for what an active, innovative and principled foreign policy should include:

End the custodian and vassal relationships

Supporters of the Vetevendosje party celebrate the party's projected victory in the parliamentary elections, in Pristina, Kosovo, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

One day after his Vetevendosje party romped home in elections, Kosovo's new leader will find it easy to form a government - but will face problems if he tries to sideline the dialogue with Serbia.

Political leaders in Kosovo have accepted the landslide victory of the Vetevendosje Movement in Sunday's snap parliamentary elections, with some saying they took responsibility for their own parties' poor showing.

The opposition Vetevendosje party was on course for a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections in Kosovo on Sunday, on a day that its leader and prime ministerial candidate, Albin Kurti, described as a "bright day" when he cast his ballot at a Pristina polling centre in the morning.

A decision of Kosovo's outgoing government to ease the COVID-19 prevention measures within the country - but not for visitors - only three days before elections, has drawn condemnation for making it more difficult for Kosovars working abroad to vote.

For two decades, voters in the town of Skenderaj/Srbica in Kosovo's Drenica Valley have been pledging their support to the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK and its former leader Hashim Thaci, the wartime political chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA who went on to dominate politics in the country in the years after the conflict.

The debate raged for nearly seven hours, but eventually Kosovo's divided Central Election Commission, CEC, took a decision on January 22 that threatens the prospects of the popular Vetevendosje [Self-Determination] party in a Valentine's Day snap election.