The 2008 Kosovan presidential election was an indirect election held by the Assembly of Kosovo on 9 January 2008. The members of the Assembly of Kosovo voted to choose the next President of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG). The vote took place during a constitutional crisis. At that time, the current president, Fatmir Sejdiu, held two important jobs at the same time – head of state and a leading role in the government – under the rules of the UNMIK administration in Kosovo. The election was called after the current president gave a technical resignation. This step was meant to "re-legitimise" his position in the eyes of the international community just before independence.
The resignation followed a post-2007 agreement between the LDK and the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). The election took place during the very first session of the newly elected Assembly of Kosovo. It was part of a "package" vote: in the same session, the Assembly of Kosovo chose the president, the prime minister, and the full new government, exactly as the LDK–PDK coalition agreement required.
The election happened only a 39 days before the Assembly of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. It was the fourth and final presidential election carried out under the UNMIK administration and the Constitutional Framework.
Fatmir Sejdiu, the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), won re-election in the third round of voting. He received 68 votes from the parties in his coalition. The opposition parties, including the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and its allies, boycotted parts of the process. Because of the boycott, the Assembly of Kosovo did not have enough members present to meet the usual quorum rules in the early rounds. This created strong arguments about whether the election was valid. The whole process showed the deep divisions between political parties and the weak institutions in Kosovo's politics after the Kosovo War.
Background The previous presidential election in February 2006 had chosen Fatmir Sejdiu without any opponent. He was the only candidate put forward by his party and he received 80 votes in the third round after the first two rounds did not produce a winner. After the parliamentary elections on 17 November 2007, the political situation in Kosovo changed a lot. The Democratic Party of Kosovo, led by Hashim Thaçi, became the largest party in the Assembly of Kosovo. The Democratic League of Kosovo finished in second place. After several weeks of talks, the two parties formed a new governing coalition at the end of December 2007 and the beginning of January 2008. As part of that coalition deal, the current president Fatmir Sejdiu gave a technical resignation. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General accepted the resignation. This allowed Fatmir Sejdiu to stand again for a new term and to "re-legitimise" the presidency before the expected declaration of independence. The timing was highly strategic, taking place during the opening session of the newly elected assembly. Both local and international observers viewed this quick election as a necessary procedural move to reinforce the strength of Kosovo's domestic institutions on the eve of statehood.
Preceding political crisis After the parliamentary elections on 17 November 2007, Kosovo faced even more political tension. The biggest parties were trying to agree on a new coalition government while international talks about Kosovo's final status remained stuck. The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), led by Hashim Thaçi, won the most seats – 34 out of 120. The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the party of President Fatmir Sejdiu, won 28 seats. These numbers meant the parties had to share power to reach a majority. The talks were difficult because the parties had different ideas about who should become president and how to push for independence. This came after Serbia rejected the UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposal and Russia threatened to use its veto in the middle of 2007. The negotiations at the end of 2007 were full of arguments over who would get the top jobs, including the presidency and the job of prime minister. The parties also had to decide how to deal with the ongoing UNMIK-supervised process under UNMIK. Albanian leaders expected to take steps toward independence on their own while still trying to keep things calm inside Kosovo. The old coalition government, led by Prime Minister Agim Çeku since 2006, had basically ended after the elections. A caretaker administration was left in place while the talks continued. To solve the deadlock and prepare stable leadership before the expected independence declaration, the new Assembly of Kosovo held its first session and put the presidential vote first on 9 January 2008, as the Constitutional Framework required. In the end, the Assembly of Kosovo re-elected Fatmir Sejdiu in the third round with 68 votes from his coalition supporters. This opened the way for Hashim Thaçi to become the new prime minister. The whole sequence showed how closely the choice of president and the formation of the government were linked during Kosovo's transitional period under international administration.
Status negotiations and UNMIK administration The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) was created by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 on 10 June 1999. This came right after NATO's intervention in the Kosovo War. UNMIK was given the job of running the territory on a temporary basis. It also ended the autonomy Kosovo had before 1999 under the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and put off any final decision on who owned the territory. The resolution said Serbia's borders remained unchanged but gave UNMIK full power over day-to-day administration, security through the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), and the political talks that would decide Kosovo's future. UNMIK kept Kosovo in a kind of legal waiting room. It held all legislative and executive power. In 2001 it created the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) through the Constitutional Framework. These institutions gave the Albanian majority some limited self-rule, but UNMIK kept the final say on everything important. Talks about Kosovo's final status became much more serious from 2005. They were led by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari. The talks ended with the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement (known as the Ahtisaari Plan) on 26 March 2007. The plan suggested supervised independence for Kosovo, with strong protections and self-rule for areas where Serbs were the majority, plus new local government arrangements. Serbia completely rejected the plan and said Kosovo should only get back its old level of autonomy inside Serbia. Kosovo's Albanian majority, who made up more than 90 percent of the people, thought the plan did not go far enough toward full independence. Russia, which supported Serbia, used its veto in the United Nations Security Council in July 2007 and stopped any resolution that would have accepted the plan. This left independence without broad international agreement and made the situation inside Kosovo more tense. UNMIK's power started to weaken because many Albanians stopped following its orders, set up their own parallel bodies, and held protests against staying under temporary rule. By the end of 2007 the deadlock had created a serious political crisis in the Assembly of Kosovo. Albanian parties demanded immediate independence while UNMIK could no longer control events. At the same time, violence against Serb communities in their small areas increased. Serbia insisted on keeping full control over Kosovo because of its long history and the fact that only about 5–7 percent of the population was Serb after many left in 1999. These completely opposite views between Serbia and the Albanian majority set the stage for Kosovo to move toward independence without UN approval. The unsolved status question under UNMIK rule, together with failed talks and weaker temporary government, directly led to the need for new leaders who could guide the country toward the independence declaration in early 2008.
Constitutional and legal basis for the election The 2008 Kosovan presidential election followed the rules written in the Constitutional Framework for Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) had published this framework as Regulation No. 2001/9 on 15 May 2001. The framework created the temporary local institutions, including the Assembly of Kosovo. The Assembly of Kosovo was the body that chose the President of Kosovo through a secret ballot. To be nominated, a candidate needed support either from the largest party in the Assembly of Kosovo or from at least 25 members. In the first two rounds of voting a candidate needed two-thirds of all 120 members (81 votes). If no one reached that number after two rounds, the third round needed only a simple majority.
Under the UNMIK administration the President of Kosovo had a mainly ceremonial job. The president stood for the unity of all people in Kosovo, signed laws passed by the Assembly of Kosovo, and carried out official and protocol duties. The president did not have real day-to-day power to run the government. Real executive power stayed with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), who could make decisions on security, foreign affairs, justice, police, the budget, and could cancel any decision made by the local institutions. Kosovo stayed fully under UNMIK control because of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 from 1999. The Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) were set up in 2001, but they had very limited powers. The President of Kosovo's term lasted five years (this had been changed from three years by an earlier amendment). The president's main duties were to represent the people, make sure institutions worked properly, suggest who should be prime minister, and handle some foreign relations – but always in agreement with the SRSG. The rules said the president could not hold any other public office at the same time. Even so, UNMIK kept the highest authority and the SRSG could cancel Assembly of Kosovo decisions or even dissolve the Assembly of Kosovo if they went against Resolution 1244 or the framework. This system made it clear that Kosovo did not have full independence and that the final decision on its status was still open. The same rules had been used in the 2006 election when Fatmir Sejdiu became president after Ibrahim Rugova died. In 2008, however, the election happened while there was a political crisis over Fatmir Sejdiu holding both the presidency and a leading role in the government at the same time. Many people said this broke the spirit of the framework that wanted clear separation of jobs. The Assembly of Kosovo went ahead with the vote without waiting for clear approval from the SRSG while the status talks were still stuck. All of this showed the difficult balance between local voting rules and the international oversight that was still in place.
Candidates and campaign
Only two candidates were officially nominated. This followed the exact rules in Section 9.2.8 of the Constitutional Framework, which said a candidate needed either the support of the largest party group or at least 25 signatures from Assembly of Kosovo members. Fatmir Sejdiu (LDK) – the current president – was nominated together by the governing PDK–LDK coalition. His technical resignation and quick re-nomination were written into the coalition deal and were backed by the majority of the new Assembly of Kosovo.