Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his Self-Determination Movement party were on track to win Kosovo's parliamentary elections on Sunday, their third in just 18 months, but were not expected to win the majority needed to end a long-running political crisis.
Europe's youngest country and one of its poorest aspires to join the European Union, but has lacked a fully functioning government for most of the past year. Deep divisions in parliament have blocked the election of a speaker of the assembly and a new head of state.
Albin Kurti's Self-Determination party led with 43 percent of the vote, with 73 percent of ballots counted after polls closed at 19 p.m., official results showed.
Foreigners would still need coalition partners to form a new government, and they would have to reach a compromise with rivals to secure the two-thirds majority needed to elect a new president.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo was at 22 percent, while the Democratic League of Kosovo had 18 percent.
Self-Determination won 51,1 percent of the vote in the last elections in December, up from 42 percent in February 2025, but failed to agree with other parties on a candidate for the largely ceremonial post of president. The impasse led to the dissolution of parliament in April and new snap elections.
Turnout was almost 37 percent, down from 45 percent in December, the election commission said.
Voters say they want an end to political gridlock and a higher standard of living while the economy grows.
"The political elite must be ready to reach an agreement. There has been a very deep division in recent years and that must stop," Fatos Selimi told Reuters after the vote in the capital, Pristina.
The European Union has called on politicians in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, to form strong institutions capable of implementing the reforms needed for membership.
Repeated elections delayed those reforms and the influx of EU funds.
Albin Kurti's party first came to power in 2021 with a nationalist and socially oriented platform. Like all major parties in Kosovo, it is pro-Western. It opposes further concessions to Serbia, with which relations remain tense.
The Kosovo Election Commission announced that more than 900 candidates from 17 parties and three coalition groups are competing for 120 seats in parliament.
About 2,1 million voters are registered, exceeding Kosovo's 1,6 million residents, reflecting a large diaspora mostly in Western Europe that largely supports Kurti's party.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
