\n Kosovo MPs voted on Thursday to dissolve parliament and trigger early elections, a move that could shake up the political scene at a time when negotiations with former foe Serbia are deadlocked.\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 to face a summons from a special court in The Hague that is investigating crimes from that era.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since his resignation, parties have agitated for a snap poll, with some already involved in unofficial campaigning and talking about possible alliances.\n<\/p>\n
\n After 89 lawmakers in the 120-member assembly voted in favour of the motion, Haradinaj hailed it as proof of Kosovo's \"political maturity\" and \"stable democracy\".\n<\/p>\n
\n He also stressed that the dialogue with Serbia \"is one of the important topics\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I think we should discuss this topic after the elections,\" he told reporters.\n<\/p>\n
\n President Hashim Thaci, who is now required to call an election within 45 days, said in a statement he would announce a poll date \"soon\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Kosovo has for months been locked in an impasse with Serbia, which still rejects the former province's independence declaration in 2008.\n<\/p>\n
\n While most of the Western world recognises Kosovo, Belgrade and its allies China and Russia do not, effectively shutting it out of the United Nations.\n<\/p>\n
\n New elections will put the stalled EU-led talks on hold for longer, with a planned summit in September likely to be postponed.\n<\/p>\n
\n After Kosovo's last parliamentary election in 2017, it took several months of wrangling to form a government.\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 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 Writing on Twitter, US ambassador Philip Kosnett welcomed the \"important step\" towards forming a new government and encouraged a \"campaign in which candidates offer fresh ideas on talks with Serbia, rule of law, and economic development\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - New alliances -\n<\/p>\n
\n The election will be Kosovo's fourth since its independence and could redraw the power lines in a system where no party appears able to win an absolute majority.\n<\/p>\n
\n Parliament was dominated by the so-called \"war wing\" -- a coalition of parties led by former war-time leaders like Haradinaj and 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 Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) into the opposition for the first time in over a decade, said political analyst Ardian Collaku.\n<\/p>\n
\n That \"would be healthy for democracy in the country,\" he told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yet it is also too early to rule out a comeback for Haradinaj.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 51-year-old has said he would return to politics if he is not indicted by the court in The Hague, which operates under Kosovo law but also has international judges.\n<\/p>\n
\n It would not be the first time -- he was previously tried and acquitted twice for war crimes by a different UN tribunal, 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 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n h-ssm\/txw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kosovo MPs voted on Thursday to dissolve parliament and trigger early elections, a move that could shake up the political scene at a time when negotiations with former foe Serbia are deadlocked. The vote comes after outgoing premier Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of ethnic Albanian rebels who battled Serbia in the late 1990s, stepped […]<\/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-42203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n