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LDK Leadership Fight Endangers Kosovo Government

14 12 2006  If foes of new party leader join opposition, coalition will lose majority in parliament.

By Krenar Gashi in Pristina (Balkan Insight, 14 Dec 06)

Two arrests, fist fights and a display of guns were some of the highlights of the congress of Kosovo’s largest party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, which met on December 9 to select a successor to Ibrahim Rugova.

Winning 189 out of 349 valid votes, Fatmir Sejdiu, Kosovo’s current president, was chosen as next leader of the LDK, narrowly beating his rival, Nexhat Daci, former speaker of parliament.

Sejdiu’s slight advantage over Daci appeared to make the existing rift between two factions even more aggressive. The congress ended in violent scenes when Sejdiu’s faction proposed a list of delegates for the party’s General Council from which Daci supporters were excluded.

The list excluded key figures in the LDK, such as government ministers, municipal heads and even the head of the party’s parliamentary group, Alush Gashi, on account of their loyalty to Daci.

While Daci and his followers withdrew from the congress in protest, some of his more militant supporters, such as Gani Geci, started arguing and fighting. The situation ended up with fisticuffs, broken chairs and the intervention of the police.

Veton Elshani, spokesperson for Kosovo Police Service, KPS, said two police officers were injured in the scuffles while two persons were arrested.

Sejdiu claims the congress is now over and that the process of electing the LDK presidency will continue as normal, but Daci’s followers are not reconciled.

Many predict that the divisions within the largest party in Kosovo are now so deep that the government may lose its working majority.

The LDK was the first Albanian political party formed in Kosovo, in 1989. Under Rugova, it led the resistance to the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic for a decade, advocating non-violence and the creation of parallel Albanian systems of education and government.

Following Kosovo’s first free elections after the war in 2001, the LDK emerged as the largest party but was unable to form a government alone and so created a broad coalition.

In Kosovo’s second elections in 2005, the LDK formed a milestone coalition with its former foes in the Alliance for Future of Kosovo, AAK, led by Ramush Haradinaj. The coalition now holds 66 of the 120 seats in parliament.

Since Rugova’s death in January 2006, the party has been without a chief while leadership elections were postponed over and over again.

Since then, Sejdiu and Daci have emerged as main contenders for the crown.

Not long after Rugova’s death, the party presidency, dominated by Sejdiu supporters, made crucial changes, replacing Daci and the deputy prime minister, Adem Salihaj, a Daci supporter.

Divisions within the party became starker as both Sejdiu and Daci lobbied for votes at the upcoming congress.

Daci’s faction makes up ten of the 49 LDK members of parliament. As the government has only a bare majority of the 120 votes, there is a danger that Daci supporters may join the opposition in calling for vote of confidence.

Hashim Thaci, leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, has not hidden his ambition to be a part of a new coalition government.

“It will be very hard for the current government to survive,” Hydajet Hyseni, a former LDK member who is now a member of PDK presidency, told Balkan Insight.

“Any [new] government that does not include all the parties will not work,” added Hyseni, urging a broad coalition “for the good of the country”.

Lulezim Zeneli, a former LDK spokesperson and Daci supporter, agreed that there was everything to play for.

“We have at least ten seats in the parliament,” he said. “If Sejdiu decides to ignore them… there will be a spirit of hostility at all levels.”

Kole Berisha, the speaker of parliament and a Sejdiu supporter, disagreed. “There is no need for a new government,” he said.

But Milazim Krasniqi, an LDK founder and an independent political analyst, sees no possibility for a compromise.

“If Daci’s faction decides to gather a group of ten members of parliament, they can practically overthrow the government [with the help of opposition],” he said.

Krenar Gashi is BIRN Kosovo’s Assistant Editor. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.