Kosovo’s ruling party, Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (LVV), has emerged as the winner of the country’s parliamentary elections but fell short of an outright majority, according to near-final results. Meanwhile, an election-monitoring NGO criticized delays in the vote-counting process, warning of potential damage to public trust in the electoral system.
LVV Maintains Lead but Faces Coalition Challenge
With nearly all regular polling station votes counted, LVV secured 47 seats in the 120-member parliament. The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) followed with 25 seats, while the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) won 20 seats. The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) captured eight seats.
Despite its lead, LVV remains short of the 61-seat majority required to govern alone. Analysts suggest the party could gain additional seats from the 100,000–120,000 remaining votes, which include ballots from the diaspora and conditional votes.
“Based on past election trends, LVV traditionally performs strongly among diaspora voters,” political analyst Eugen Cakolli wrote in a Facebook post. If the party wins around 60% of overseas votes, it could secure up to 49 seats. A more optimistic scenario—where LVV claims over 75% of these votes—could see its total rise to 51 seats. However, in a worst-case scenario, where diaspora support drops below 50%, LVV could fall to 46 seats.
Non-Majority Communities Retain Reserved Seats
The 20 seats allocated to Kosovo’s ethnic minorities remain largely unchanged. The Serb community retains 10 seats, with the dominant Serb party Srpska Lista securing nine. Bosniak, Turkish, Egyptian, Romani, Ashkali, and Gorani representatives filled the remaining 10 seats.
Unlike Albanian-majority parties, non-majority parties are not subject to an electoral threshold, and their mandates are distributed through a quota system using the D’Hondt method.
Election Watchdog Criticizes Delays in Vote Counting
While election day on February 9 was largely peaceful, civil society groups have raised concerns over delays in counting candidate votes. The NGO Democracy in Action (DnV) accused the Central Election Commission (KQZ) of failing to ensure transparency.
“The failure of the electronic system to publish preliminary results left the public without accurate information until the following day,” DnV said in a statement.
By law, only party votes are counted immediately after polls close, while candidate votes should be verified the following day. However, KQZ postponed the start of this process due to what it called “technical and administrative problems.”
“Counting should have started on Monday at 08:00 in all 38 municipal counting centers, yet it only began today at 16:00—and only in four municipalities,” DnV said. The group criticized the move as “improvised” and warned that further delays could undermine the certification of results.
DnV urged KQZ to improve transparency and accelerate the counting process to avoid breaching legal deadlines. “Failing to provide timely and transparent information could erode public trust in the election outcome, which is unacceptable after a democratic voting process,” the NGO said.
As Kosovo awaits final results, the focus now shifts to potential coalition negotiations and the formal certification of election outcomes.
