Kurti: Kosovo Elections A Referendum for Justice

Albin Kurti (Beta/Armenija Zajmi Besevic)

Albin Kurti, the Self-Determination Movement’s leader and Kosovo prime minister candidate, has called the results of the Feb. 14 parliamentary elections in Kosovo a “referendum for justice,” adding that the talks with Serbia would be the new government’s “fifth or sixth priority.”

“We’ve won in these elections. This was a referendum for justice and work against the occupation of the state and corruption. This is without precedent in post-war Kosovo,” he said to his supporters in the evening of Election Day.

The Self-Determination movement leader thanked his activists and followers for good electoral management, extending special thanks to the members of the Diaspora who had shown up for the elections in great numbers.

“We won’t be taking revenge, but we’ll demand accountability,” Kurti said, adding that the normalization talks with Serbia will be “his government’s fifth or sixth priority.”

According to the results published on the Central Election Commission’s web page after 80 percent of the ballots have been counted, the winner of the elections is the Self-Determination movement with 47.92 percent of the vote.

The runner up is the Democratic Party of Kosovo with 17.52 percent, while the Democratic League of Kosovo has come in third with 13.36 percent of the vote. The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo won 7.46 percent, whereas the Social Democratic Initiative will not be entering the parliament as it had so far mustered 2.8 percent.