\n Kosovo's parliament will on Thursday hold a vote to dissolve the assembly and trigger new elections, a move that risks further delaying a deadlocked dialogue with former war foe Serbia.\n<\/p>\n
\n The vote comes after outgoing premier Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of ethnic Albanian rebels who battled Serbia in the late 1990s, stepped down in July after he was summoned to a special court in the Hague, which is investigating crimes from that era.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since his resignation, parties have agitated for a snap poll and pledged to disband parliament, with some already kicking off unofficial campaigning.\n<\/p>\n
\n If parliament is dissolved, authorities will be required to organise an election within 45 days.\n<\/p>\n
\n The political jostling comes as Kosovo is at an impasse with Serbia, which still rejects the independence the former province declared in 2008.\n<\/p>\n
\n While most of the Western world recognises Kosovo, Serbia and its allies China and Russia do not, effectively shutting it out of the UN.\n<\/p>\n
\n New elections will put the EU-led talks on hold for longer, with a planned summit in September likely to be postponed.\n<\/p>\n
\n Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he expects negotiation to only resume \"in early December, at best\" because of Kosovo's possible election.\n<\/p>\n
\n A new government could, however, offer an opening if it were to revoke the 100 percent tariff on Serbian goods that Haradinaj put in place last November.\n<\/p>\n
\n That move enraged Belgrade and brought the talks to a grinding halt.\n<\/p>\n
\n Haradinaj has refused to bend to heavy pressure from the EU and US to lift the trade barrier, which Serbia says is a requisite for returning to the table.\n<\/p>\n
\n Political analyst Arton Muhaxhiri says he expects the Serbia dialogue to be at the forefront of any new government formation.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"A lot of time has been wasted, and a government that does not have a positive approach to the dialogue with Serbia will not be allowed,\" he told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The whole region suffers from the delay of dialogue in Brussels,\" he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Power shake-up -\n<\/p>\n
\n Analysts say the election -- Kosovo's fourth since its independence -- could shake up the power balance in the fragile democracy.\n<\/p>\n
\n The parliament was previously dominated by the so-called \"war wing\" -- a coalition of parties led by former war-time leaders like Haradinaj and President Hashim Thaci.\n<\/p>\n
\n There has been talk of a challenge from a possible alliance between two opposition parties, the centre-right Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and left-wing nationalist Vetevendosje.\n<\/p>\n
\n Though they have little in common ideologically, their pairing could push President Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) into the opposition for the first time in over a decade, said Ardian Collaku, a political analyst.\n<\/p>\n
\n That \"would be healthy for democracy in the country,\" he told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n Observers say it is also too early to rule out a comeback from Haradinaj.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 51-year-old has said he would return to politics if he is not indicted by the court.\n<\/p>\n
\n It wouldn't be the first time -- he was previously tried and acquitted twice for war crimes by a different UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, before going on to become Prime Minister for a second term in 2017.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now he faces a court created in 2015 to investigate crimes allegedly committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against Serbs, Roma and ethnic Albanian political opponents during and after the 1998-99 war.\n<\/p>\n
\n Haradinaj, who insists on his innocence, commanded guerrillas in the Western Kosovo region of Dukagjin, where heavy fighting and abuse of civilians occurred on both sides.\n<\/p>\n
\n The war claimed more than 13,000 lives, the vast majority ethnic Albanians.\n<\/p>\n
\n Numerous Serb leaders have been convicted of committing crimes against humanity during the conflict, which was the final war in Yugoslavia's bloody collapse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kosovo's parliament will on Thursday hold a vote to dissolve the assembly and trigger new elections, a move that risks further delaying a deadlocked dialogue with former war foe Serbia. The vote comes after outgoing premier Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of ethnic Albanian rebels who battled Serbia in the late 1990s, stepped down in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-42192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n