By Fatos Bytyci
PRISTINA, June 7 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Albin Kurti's party was set to win Kosovo's parliamentary election on Sunday, the Balkan country's third in just 18 months, but was expected to fall short of the majority needed to end the country's prolonged political crisis.
Europe's youngest and one of its poorest nations aspires to join the European Union, but has lacked a fully functioning government for much of the past year. Deep divisions in parliament have blocked the election of a speaker and a new head of state.
Kurti's Vetevendosje party was leading with 43% of the vote, with 73% of the ballots counted after voting closed at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT), official results showed.
The party would still need coalition partners to form a new government, and would need to compromise with rivals to secure the two-thirds majority required to elect a new president.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo was polling at 22%, while the Democratic League of Kosovo stood at 18%.
Vetevendosje won 51.1% in the last election in December, up from 42% in February 2025, but failed to agree with other parties on a candidate for the largely ceremonial presidency. That deadlock led to parliament's dissolution in April and another snap election.
VOTERS WANT END TO POLITICAL CRISIS, HIGHER LIVING STANDARDS
Turnout was nearly 37%, down from 45% in December, the election commission said.
Voters say they want an end to the stalemate and higher living standards as the economy grows.
"The political elite needs to be ready to reach an agreement. There has been a very deep division caused over recent years, and this must come to an end," said Fatos Selimi after voting in the capital Pristina.
The EU has urged politicians in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, to create strong institutions capable of delivering reforms needed for membership.
Repeated elections have delayed those reforms and the flow of EU funds.
Kurti's party first came to power in 2021 with a more nationalist, welfare-focused agenda. Like all major parties in Kosovo, it is pro-Western. It opposes further concessions to Serbia, with which relations remain strained.
Kosovo's election commission has said more than 900 candidates from 17 parties and three coalition groups are competing for seats in the 120-seat parliament.
About 2.1 million voters are registered, exceeding Kosovo's 1.6 million resident population, reflecting a large diaspora that is mostly based in western Europe and tends to favour Kurti's party.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci. Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Aidan Lewis, Kirsten Donovan, Mark Potter and Edmund Klamann)
