Kosovo lawmakers elect a new president in a late-night vote to avert snap election

On October 7, the Kosovo parliament elected economist Justina Shiroka Pula as the new president in a late-night session just before the constitutional deadline, thereby avoiding another snap election. The vote was crucial because failure to elect a president would have triggered early parliamentary elections, which had happened previously in June due to political deadlock. In this instance, 81 votes out of 120 were cast for Shiroka Pula, with one more than the required two-thirds majority needed. Her election came after negotiations between the ruling Vetevendosje party and the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo over limiting the powers of a war crimes court in The Hague, which had sentenced former President Hashim Thaci to 13 years in prison as part of an 81-year total sentence handed down to four individuals. Demonstrations demanding these changes were met with police action using tear gas and water cannons on Monday.