KIU International Desk: Kosovo Gets New Female President

By Rogers Wanambwa

KIU, Main Campus câ¬â€œ Last Sunday, Vjosa Osmani became the second female president of Kosovo after she overcame an opposition boycott that had kept parliament quorum short the previous day.

Osmani, who is 38-years-old garnered 71 votes from 82 lawmakers present in Kosovocâ¬â„cs 120-seat parliament. This comes after ex-president, Hashim Thaci vacated office in November after he was ousted for war crime charges.

Besides being majorly ceremonial, the countrycâ¬â„cs president is the commander of their armed forces and also serves as the countrycâ¬â„cs top diplomatic representative. These are some of the roles that Osmani will assume.

Her career and education background includes having studied law in Pristina and then a bachelorcâ¬â„cs and mastercâ¬â„cs degrees at the US University of Pittsburgh. She had been one of the senior officials of the Democratic League of Kosovo (DLK) party till she was ousted due to inter-party strife.

Besides, she still managed to secure over 300,000 votes as a Vetevendosje candidate for her MP seat at the February election.

Even still, Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his Vetevendosje party supported her and her candidature for the presidentcâ¬â„cs seat. Osmani who had previously served as the Speaker for Kosovocâ¬â„cs parliament had taken over the presidential role on a provisional basis ahead of the Sunday vote.

She had taken over the provisional role since November when the president was ousted for criminal charges.

In part of her acceptance speech, she said that câ¬Å“Peace would be achieved only when we see remorse and an apology from Serbia and when we see justice for those who have suffered for their crimes.c⬝