June 8 (SeeNews) - Kosovo needs to eliminate its wartime leaders from political life otherwise it will hardly achieve any progress, the International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) said in regard to the early elections to be held on June 11.
Kosovo's weak judicial system is not capable of carrying out quality and fair trials of alleged war crimes, organised crime and corruption, as the roots of crime stem from the former coalition government itself, the institute said in an analysis of Kosovo's current political situation, which was published at the end of May.
Kosovo will go to early elections after the coalition government, led by Isa Mustafa lost a no-confidence vote filed by the opposition and backed by one of the coalition partner, the Democratic Party of Kosovo.
Following the fall of the government, the other partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) formed coalition with Behgjet Pacolli's New Kosovo Alliance (ARK) and Ilir Deda's "The Alternative", while PDK entered coalition with the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) led by Ramush Haradinaj and with the party "Nisma" led by Fatmir Limaj.
Public opinion polls foresee that the main race will take place between the PDK coalition, LDK coalition and the Self-Determination Movement (LVV) and they will end up with narro results, IFIMES recalled.
IFIMES analysts believe that the Self-Determination Movement, the only party which has not been in the government yet, neither entered a pre-election coalition with some of the old parties, could be a breath of fresh air for Kosovo's politics, prevailed by crime, corruption and nepotism.
"[...]Kosovo needs a new political leadership which is not burdened with past encumbrances and that changes in the government would be a healthy motivation for the young Kosovo democracy," IFIMES said.
According to the institute, the socialist Self-Determination Movement has high chances to win the June 11 vote, as the voters might be willing to punish their leaders, under who corruption and nepotism flourished and who deceived the voters with empty promises for 200,000 new jobs.
The analysts believe that the coalition of PDK with former greatest opponent AAK could be interpreted by voters as desire to remain in power at any cost.
"It is expected that the voters will punish such unprincipled coalition which is burdened with numerous encumbrances from the past and which has already blown its chances to show what it can do for Kosovo," the institute said in regard to the PDK-AAK-Nisma coalition.
The next government will inherit three issues, the resolution of which is key to the political development of the country - the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro, which is conditional for the liberalisation of visas for Kosovars, the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) and the formation of Kosovo Army.
It will also have to deal with the high unemployment rate as a step toward preventing another wave of emigration to the EU. Among the other key priorities, which the institute highlighted in its report, are the establishing of a strict and systematic mechanism for control of the privatisation process, as well as a functioning special war crime court and prosecution office, which should launch the process of elimination of wartime leaders from the political and public life in Kosovo.