Kosovo elects Justina Shiroka Pula president

Kosovo’s parliament elected Justina Shiroka Pula president with 81 votes in the 120-seat legislature, averting an immediate snap election after a last-minute agreement between the ruling Vetevendosje Movement and the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo. The vote took place shortly after midnight on October 7, near a constitutional deadline that lawmakers had to meet to avoid parliament’s dissolution. The agreement also cleared the way for parliament to approve amendments to the law governing the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a Hague-based court that prosecutes crimes related to the Kosovo war. Lawmakers approved the changes shortly before the presidential vote. The amendments include a 15-year cap on prison sentences, according to reports on the legislation. Pula, an economist and academic, was proposed by Prime Minister Albin Kurti late in the evening. She received more than the 80 votes required in the 120-seat legislature. She previously served as Kosovo’s minister of energy and mining and as a member of parliament for the Democratic Party of Kosovo. She also led the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts.