Political crisis drags in Kosovo as winning party falls short of majority in parliamentary elections

Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s party ‌won Kosovo’s parliamentary election on Sunday, the Balkan country’s third in just 18 months, but fell short of the majority needed to end the country’s prolonged political crisis, Reuters writes.

Europe’s youngest and one of its poorest nations aspires to join the European Union, but has lacked ​a fully functioning government for much of the past year. Deep divisions in parliament have blocked the ​election of a speaker and a new head of state.

Kurti’s Vetevendosje party was leading ⁠with 43% of the vote, with 99.4% of the ballots counted, official results showed.

The party would still need coalition ​partners to form a new government, and would need to compromise with rivals to secure the two-thirds majority required ​to elect a new president.