Atifete Jahjaga addresses parliament after her election
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Kosovo's parliament has elected Atifete Jahjaga as its new president, ending a dispute over the controversial election win by Kosovan-Swiss Behgjet Pacolli in February.
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swissinfo.ch and agencies
The 35-year-old Jahjaga received 80 votes, with no votes against, in Thursday’s parliament session.
Jahjaga – the first woman to head the state – was a compromise candidate in a United States-brokered deal between Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, businessman Pacolli and the head of the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa.
The Kosovo Constitutional Court had ruled that the February election win by Pacolli, who holds dual Kosovan and Swiss citizenship, had breached the constitution because an opposition boycott left fewer lawmakers in the parliament for the vote than required by law.
The opposition threatened to repeat the boycott if Pacolli ran again.
Pacolli is a multi-millionaire who owns a construction company based in Switzerland’s canton Ticino.
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Kosovo president will not step down
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In an apparent reversal of his original position, Pacolli, who holds dual Kosovan and Swiss citizenship, told a local radio station in Kosovo on Thursday that there was no need to resign while the coalition government figures out what to do. On Wednesday he was reported to have stepped down from his post, after Kosovo’s nine-member…
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But according to one of his advisors, Pacolli, a naturalised Swiss, will stand for re-election. Kosovo’s nine-member Constitutional Court said on Wednesday last month’s vote in parliament “was unconstitutional and shall no longer be in force”. In the ruling posted on its website, the court said more than one candidate for the presidency was required for…
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Pacolli is the head of the New Kosovo Alliance (AKR), one of the parties in a coalition deal signed on Saturday with Kosovo’s caretaker prime minister Hashim Thaci. Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) won a third of votes in an election two months ago, but has turned to the AKR and the ethnic minority…
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