Kosovo lawmakers break 8-month deadlock with election of an ethnic Serb to the leadership team

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PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s Parliament on Friday ended an eight-month political deadlock by electing its full leadership, including a representative from the ethnic Serb minority, clearing the path for the formation of a new government.

Although the Parliament elected the rest of its top team in August, including a speaker from the the left-wing Self-Determination Movement (Vetevendosje!), it had failed to elect one representative from the ethnic Serb minority, as the constitution requires.

In Friday’s vote Nenad Rasic, from a small ethnic Serb party named For Freedom, Justice and Survival, was elected as deputy speaker with 71 votes in favor. All nine lawmakers from the main Serb party, Srpska Lista, voted against and 24 members from two smaller right-wing ethnic Albanian parties abstained.

Srpska Lista, which won nine out of 10 seats reserved for the ethnic Serb minority, is considered as very close to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his government in Belgrade. Kosovo’s Albanians view that relationship as a risk of inciting ethnic tensions.

The breakthrough followed a Constitutional Court ruling Wednesday urging lawmakers to resolve the stalemate within 12 days.

Friday’s vote breaks a prolonged impasse that began after inconclusive elections on Feb. 9. Vetevendosje!, led by acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti, won 48 seats out of 120, down from 58 in the previous election and falling well short of the 61 members needed to govern alone.

Kurti’s party and the main opposition groups have consistently ruled out forming a coalition.

As the leader of the largest single party, Kurti will given a mandate to form a Cabinet within 15 days, which must then be approved by Parliament. However, if he fails twice, Kosovo could hold early elections.

A new government is urgently needed to address economic challenges and restart stalled talks, facilitated by the European Union, on normalization with Serbia. Kosovo also faces municipal elections on Oct. 12.

Around 11,400 people died, mostly from Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority, in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, which was formerly a province of Serbia. A 78-day NATO air campaign ended the fighting and pushed Serbian forces out.

Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, remains a focal point of regional tensions. While most Western nations recognize its statehood, Serbia — along with Russia and China — does not.

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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.