Kosovo is set to hold its third parliamentary election in little over a year after lawmakers failed to elect a new president before a constitutional deadline expired at midnight on Tuesday. Parliament Speaker Albulena Haxhiu confirmed that the legislature had formally reached the end of its term, triggering a constitutional requirement to hold new elections within 45 days.

The deadlock centres on the expiry of former President Vjosa Osmani's mandate on April 4. Under Kosovo's constitution, the president is chosen indirectly by parliament and requires a two-thirds majority — at least 80 of 120 MPs — to be present for a valid vote. In the final 24 hours before the deadline, parliament convened three times, but opposition parties boycotted all sessions, leaving the chamber without the required quorum. Prime Minister Albin Kurti, whose left-wing Vetevendosje party won 51 percent of the vote in December's elections, accused the opposition of deliberate obstruction. Opposition parties countered that Kurti had failed to seek genuine consensus, with some accusing the ruling party of attempting a "constitutional coup" after it briefly tried to push through a vote with only its own MPs present.

The path to this impasse has been winding. Osmani, who had sought a second term, was dropped by Vetevendosje — the party that originally backed her — in favour of its own candidates, including Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca. When those candidates failed to gather support, they withdrew, and two new surprise names were put forward late on Monday. One of them, civil society activist Feride Rushiti, received 63 votes in a first round — well short of the 80 required. In a last-ditch offer, the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo suggested returning to Osmani as a compromise candidate, but no agreement was reached.

Kosovo, a landlocked country in the Western Balkans with fewer than two million inhabitants, declared independence from Serbia unilaterally in 2008 and is not universally recognised internationally. The country has now been governed by a caretaker administration for much of the past year, following a previous election in February 2025 that also failed to produce a stable government for months.

The prolonged political crisis carries real consequences beyond domestic politics. Kosovo's aspirations for European Union membership depend on institutional stability and the implementation of reforms demanded by Brussels. Continued deadlock risks delaying that process, as well as holding up financial support from the EU and the World Bank. With a new election now unavoidable, and no sign of the underlying political divisions resolving, analysts and observers warn that another vote may simply reset — rather than break — the cycle.