The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) has formalized the agreement to run jointly in the June 7 snap parliamentary elections with former President Vjosa Osmani, during the party's General Council meeting. LDK Chairman Lumir Abdixhiku confirmed that the LDK has supported his proposal for Osmani to be the party's candidate for president. Abdixhiku himself will be a candidate for prime minister.
Abdixhiku said that the decision was taken unanimously by the LDK General Council, adding that the party's electoral list will also include 19 other names proposed by Osmani. In recent days, Osmani has confirmed that part of her political journey will be figures such as: Fahrie Hoti, an activist known mainly for representing the women of Krusha e Madhe after the Kosovo war; Jeta Statovci, former Guxo MP and among the most voted on the LVV list in the last elections; Albena Reshitaj, former Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning and former AAK MP.
Before her departure, Osmani had been one of the most voted figures in the LDK and, in her political career, has held important institutional functions, including that of president and deputy. Her relations with the then LDK structures deteriorated after the 2019 elections and the fall of the Kurti I Government. In the 2021 elections, Osmani ran in coalition with Albin Kurti and the Vetevendosje Movement, and later formed her own political entity, the Guxo List. After winning the elections, she was elected president of Kosovo and served her term until the end, but the non-support for a second term by the LVV damaged relations between them. Analyst Belgzim Kamberi from the Musine Kokalari Institute has described the Osmani-LDK rapprochement as the “main innovation” of these elections, assessing that its electoral effect could significantly strengthen the LDK list.
Three days before the deadline for submitting lists of candidates for MPs for the early parliamentary elections on June 7, political parties in Kosovo have intensified negotiations and the finalization of electoral bids. Thus, at the meeting of the General Council of the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV), also held on Saturday, the ruling party once again unanimously formalized Albin Kurti as the candidate for prime minister.
The incumbent Prime Minister, Kurti, is aiming for a new mandate after the LVV won two elections in 2025, first in February and then in the extraordinary elections in December. In the latter, his party received over 51 percent of the vote and Kurti again emerged as the most voted. During his speech, Kurti said that, in the elections on June 7, he aims to win 60 percent of the vote.
The LVV has already confirmed the continuation of the coalition with Guxo, the Alternative and the Albanian Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) has also received offers to expand its electoral list with other parties that decided not to compete alone. Fatmir Limaj's Social Democratic Initiative and the New Kosovo Alliance (AKR) have expressed their willingness to be included in the PDK list. In a letter addressed to the PDK leader, Bedri Hamza, Limaj expressed his readiness for "cooperation and political unity" in order to create a common opposition alternative.
PDK has not yet issued a public statement on Nisma's bid. Limaj was also among the PDK's most voted figures in the past, before his split from the party and the creation of NISMA. The Central Election Commission has announced that 22 political entities and three coalitions have registered to participate in the June 7 elections, while nine entities have withdrawn from running alone or in coalition.
Early parliamentary elections will be held on June 7, after the Kosovo Assembly failed to elect a new president within the constitutional deadline. These will be the third parliamentary elections in 18 months in Kosovo, following those in February and December 2025./REL
