Kosovo's parliament to elect new PM

Kosovo’s politicians were to elect a new prime minister for the province today to replace Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned earlier this month after being indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The 120-seat parliament will vote on whether to accept Bajram Kosumi, nominated by President Ibrahim Rugova, as prime minister – ignoring appeals from some western officials to form a wider government to lead the province in talks on its future later this year.

Kosumi, 45, acted as environment and town planning minister under Haradinaj. He is the deputy leader of Haradinaj’s Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, known by its acronym AAK, and needs 61 votes to get the post.

Haradinaj resigned on March 8 to defend himself against charges of war crimes allegedly committed during Kosovo’s 1998-1999 war against Serb forces. He surrendered to the war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands on March 9.

Kosumi’s nomination ends hopes of some western officials who wanted to create a broad coalition of all political parties in Kosovo before the province moved toward talks on whether it will become independent or remain part of Serbia-Montenegro.

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority want independence, while the Serb minority insists it remain a province of Serbia.

The AAK, Kosovo’s third largest party. After last year’s general elections, the AAK formed a coalition with the Democratic League of Kosovo, which won the elections but did not have an outright majority.

The second largest party in the province, led by the former leader of the ethnic Albanian rebels, Hashim Thaci, will remain in opposition and said it will create a shadow government.

Kosumi was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 1981 for his role in ethnic Albanian student protests against Serb rule in the province. After his release, he headed a small party before merging it with the AAK in 2002.

If elected, he is expected to appoint two new ministers.

The new government is expected to lead this disputed UN-run province into talks on its final status later this year. The talks will be one of the most sensitive times for Kosovo since the 1998-99 war, at the end of which the province was put under UN and Nato control.