Isa Mustafa, the long-standing leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (LDK) has resigned following a devastating blow in the Sunday elections.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, Mustafa announced he was stepping down from party leadership due to the “very bad” result in the last elections.
One of the historically largest parties in Kosovo, center-right LDK received only 13.08 percent of votes in last week’s elections, almost half of the 24.55 percent received in late 2019 elections.
Mustafa has been leading the party since 2010. Under his leadership, the LDK has been unable to win any of the five general elections in the country. The last result was the worst ever for the party.
However, Mustafa managed to have the LDK lead two governments; he was prime minister from 2014-2017, and Avdullah Hoti led the government from 2020-2021.
The last election campaign was led by Hoti, whose position in the party remains unclear.
The latest blow to their support came after Mustafa and Hoti led the ousting of the government led by Vetevendosje’s Albin Kurti less than two months after it was formed thanks to a coalition with the LDK.
Vjosa Osmani, the most voted LDK politician in 2019, left the party due to what she deemed a breach of the coalition agreement with Vetevendosje, and joined the latter in the February 14 elections.
While support for Vetevendosje nearly doubled in the Sunday elections, reaching roughly 48 percent according to preliminary results, that for LDK halved to just 13 percent.
