The Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, has announced that Avdullah Hoti has been nominated as the party’s candidate for Kosovo’s next prime minister.

Following a meeting of the LDK presidency on Thursday, party chairman Isa Mustafa announced at a press conference that the decision to nominate Hoti had been unanimous. “We discussed Avdullah Hoti, Kujtim Shala and Lufti Haziri, but with approval from all, we have agreed that Avdullah Hoti will be our nomination for prime minister,” Mustafa said.

Earlier on Thursday, an official from the Office of the President told BIRN that President Thaci is set to offer LDK the mandate to form the next government, after Mustafa confirmed to Thaci that he had secured the necessary majority in parliament at a meeting on Wednesday. The President stated on Wednesday that he was willing to offer the mandate to whichever party or coalition is capable of commanding a majority in the Kosovo Assembly.

The parliamentary majority looks set to include the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, the coalition between NISMA and the New Kosovo Alliance, AKR, and the entirety of the reserved seats for Kosovo’s ethnic minorities.

On April 14, the LDK General Council voted in favour of the party attempting to form a government with AAK and NISMA-AKR, while AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj stated on Thursday that the party’s steering council has been convened to vote on a proposal to join a coalition government sent by LDK.

Speaking to the media after the announcement of his nomination, Hoti said that the next government was being formed under difficult circumstances. “I have received the blessing from LDK to try to build the team for the new government, which will have the management of the pandemic as its first challenge and the recovery of the economy as its second challenge,” he said.

Hoti also addressed the question of who will represent Kosovo in the dialogue with Serbia. “The dialogue will be led by the government,” he said. “I am convinced that we will create the necessary consensus.”

LDK’s nomination of Hoti comes after several letters were sent between Vetevendosje leader and acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Thaci, who requested the party nominate its own candidate to mandate the next government. However, Kurti is yet to do so, labelling Thaci’s current attempts to form the next government as “unconstitutional.” 

Hoti, who most recently served as the first deputy prime minister in the Vetevendosje-LDK coalition government that was dismissed on 25 March, was also LDK’s prime ministerial candidate for the June 2017 election, in which the party finished in third place. 

During the October 2019 elections, Hoti received just over 26,000 votes, the fifth-most-voted-for MP candidate among those put forward by LDK. The most-voted-for candidate and LDK nominee for prime minister during the 2019 election campaign, Vjosa Osmani, reportedly did not attend Thursday’s meeting of the LDK presidency.