Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Kosovo Anti-Establishment Party Set for Landslide Win

Agence France-Presse

   Kosovo's left-wing reformists were headed for a landslide victory in
   parliamentary elections, initial results showed Monday, handing them a
   strong mandate for change from voters fed up with the political
   establishment.

   The oppositionVetevendosje(Self-determination) party took home around
   48 percent of the vote, according to a tally of more than 90 percent of
   ballots cast in the Sunday vote.

   The triumph nearly doubled the party's last electoral showing in 2019,
   reflecting a hunger for new leadership in troubled Kosovo.

   "This great victory is an opportunity to start the changes we want,"
   the party's firebrand leader Albin Kurti, long a thorn in the
   establishment's side, said in a victory speech.

   "The election was indeed a referendum on justice and employment and
   against corruption and state capture," the 45-year-old added, while
   warning of "many obstacles" ahead.

   The snap poll came after a tumultuous year in which the coronavirus
   pandemic deepened social and economic crises in the former Serbian
   province, which declared independence 13 years ago after a separatist
   war led by ethnic Albanian rebels.

.