PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Voters in Kosovo cast ballots Sunday in an early parliamentary election, the third in less than 18 months, in an attempt to unlock a political impasse in the small Balkan nation, which is striving to join the European Union and NATO.
The ballot was scheduled after the main political parties failed to agree by a March deadline on who should replace former President Vjosa Osmani. The first inconclusive election in February 2025 left the country without a functioning government for much of last year, forcing a second election in December.
The prolonged crisis has negatively affected Kosovo's economy, already hit hard by the global energy crisis and rising fuel prices. Kosovo, one of the youngest and poorest countries in Europe, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, after a 1998-99 war that ended in a NATO bombing that forced Serbia to withdraw.
