PRISTINA: Kosovars began voting on Sunday in a parliamentary election that an anti-establishment party is expected to win, further complicating Western efforts to resolve the country’s decades-long territorial dispute with Serbia.
Opinion polls suggest the Vetevendosje party will win 45% to 55% of the vote among ethnic Albanians, who make up 90% of Kosovo’s 1.9 million population. While that would be nearly double its result in a 2019 election, the party may still need a partner to govern.
Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti, who served as prime minister for five months last year, has won support on pledges to fight widespread corruption and on a stance that there should be no compromise in a dialogue with Serbia, which lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after NATO bombed its forces.
“Kosovo as an independent state, this Sunday, is returning to its people as the source of sovereignty,” Kurti told reporters after casting his ballot. “We should vote with love for the country”