PRISTINA – Vjosa Osmani, 38, is the new president of Kosovo. She was elected by Parliament in the late afternoon with 71 votes in favor (out of a total of 120). The election took place with a simple majority (quorum of 61), after the first two attempts that required a two-thirds majority had failed (80). The day before the quorum had not been reached for the ballot which takes place over a maximum of three rounds and the meeting had been suspended.
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The other candidate in the running, Nasuf Bejta, did not obtain any votes in favor. Deputies from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (Aak) and Srpska Lista (SL, the largest party in the Serbian community) did not participate in the vote. At the time of the vote, 82 deputies were present, two more than the quorum required by law.
Osmani, head of parliament, candidate of the reformist anti-corruption camp that largely won the legislative elections in February, has been acting as head of state ad interim since last November after the arrest of the outgoing president Hashim Thaci, detained in The Hague on war crimes charges.
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The legislative of February
Trained as a lawyer, Vjosa Osmani completed her master’s and doctoral studies at the American University of Pittsburgh. He is a university lecturer and teaches courses in international law. Born in Mitrovica, she is married and has two twin daughters. In addition to Albanian he speaks Serbian, Turkish, English and Spanish.
For the past few years he has worked as an assistant in the former president’s office Fatmir Sejdiu and then continued his political career as a parliamentarian. In the political elections of 2019 she was the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), and was subsequently elected to the presidency of the parliament. But due to strong differences that emerged with the party leadership, last June she was ousted from the LDK.
In the last elections of 14 February, Osmani presented himself with a list called “Guxo” together with the “Self-determination” movement of the new premier Albin Kurti, winner with over 50%, a historical figure. The tandem promises to eradicate corruption in a territory of 1.8 million inhabitants plagued by poverty and political instability.
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Western embassies had called on “political parties to play a responsible role” in “times of pandemics” and “economic challenges”. Kosovo’s economic and social problems are exacerbated by the coronavirus which threatens fragile health services and has claimed the lives of 1,900 people.
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