Bekim Sejdiu To Be Joint Candidate for Kosovo President

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Professor Bekim Sejdiu will be nominated as Kosovo's new president, the president of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Lumir Abdixhiku, announced on Aug. 31 after a meeting with Albin Kurti, the Self-Determination Movement’s leader and acting prime minister.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting with Kurti, Abdixhiku said the two sides had held regular meetings and talks since July 9, committed to finding a candidate both could accept. "Of all the names proposed and considered during the talks, we agreed on one - Professor Bekim Sejdiu," Abdixhiku said.

Speaking to reporters, Bekim Sejdiu confirmed that he had accepted the nomination to run for president of Kosovo after the Self-Determination Movement and the Democratic League of Kosovo had approved it. He said his aspirations had been focused on academic fields, but he decided to accept the nomination aware of the responsibility inherent in the office of president and Kosovo's current political situation.

Sejdiu, born in 1974, served as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo and as a diplomat before that. He was Kosovo's ambassador to Turkey from 2008 to 2012 and consul general in New York from 2012 to 2014. Before the ambassadorial posts, Sejdiu worked as a political adviser in the office of Kosovo's foreign minister. Sejdiu has also been a professor at the University of Pristina's Faculty of Law since 2002.