Kosovo Elects President Just Before Deadline, Averting Snap Election
Kosovo’s parliament elected Justina Shiroka Pula as president with 81 votes, narrowly meeting a deadline that would otherwise have dissolved parliament and triggered another election. The 73-year-old economist and former energy minister was nominated by Prime Minister Albin Kurti after opposition parties sought changes to the law governing the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. The vote came amid tensions over recent war crimes convictions of former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders.
Justina Shiroka Pula, 73, is an economist who has led Kosovo’s Academy of Sciences and Arts since December 2025. She previously served as energy and mining minister from 2008 to 2011 and sat in the PDK parliamentary group from 2011 to 2014. She becomes Kosovo’s third female president.
Her election followed a late-night deal. Parliament first passed amendments limiting the Specialist Chambers’ maximum prison term to 15 years. The PDK and AAK had tied support for a president to those changes, after the court convicted four former KLA leaders in September.
The last-minute vote may ease immediate political uncertainty, sparing voters another parliamentary election. It could also deepen debate over judicial independence, since lawmakers reduced the Specialist Chambers’ maximum sentence shortly before choosing a president. Families and communities tied to recent war-crimes convictions may feel the outcome keenly, while opposition and government supporters could interpret the compromise differently. Whether this stabilizes Kosovo’s institutions or prolongs tensions may depend on how the new president and parliament handle the court dispute.