Justina Shiroka Pula Elected Kosovo's President in Last-Minute Deal

A Vote Around the Deadline

The Assembly of Kosovo elected Justina Shiroka Pula president in the early hours of 7 October 2026. Exit.al reported that voting began about six minutes before a Constitutional Court deadline that would otherwise have triggered the dissolution of parliament and, in Exit.al's words, a fourth early election in under two years; European Western Balkans reported that the vote count was finalised a few minutes after that midnight deadline. She received 81 votes in the 120-seat legislature, one more than the 80-vote threshold needed for a two-thirds majority, according to European Western Balkans, Al Jazeera and Exit.al.

Her only rival in the final round was Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) lawmaker Eliza Hoxha, according to Al Jazeera and European Western Balkans; Hoxha received one vote, according to the Wikipedia record of the parliamentary tally. Shiroka Pula ran as an independent.

Two Earlier Rounds Had Already Failed

According to Wikipedia's record of the 2026 Kosovan presidential election, the presidential vote had collapsed twice before. On 5 March 2026, a sitting convened to elect Vetëvendosje's Glauk Konjufca failed after only 66 of 120 deputies attended, short of the 80-member quorum, as opposition parties PDK, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) boycotted the session. On 27 April, independent candidate Feride Rushiti won 63 votes against Vetëvendosje's Hatixhe Hoxha, who received none, but the sitting again fell short of the 80-vote quorum.

Who Is Justina Shiroka Pula

Shiroka Pula is an economist who holds a doctorate from the University of Pristina and postgraduate degrees from universities in Zagreb, Linz and Arizona, per Exit.al. She served as Kosovo's Minister of Energy and Mining from 2008 to 2011 and as a PDK member of the Assembly from 2011 to 2014. Most recently she was president of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, the first woman to hold that post. News outlets differ on her exact age: Al Jazeera described her as 73, while Exit.al put her age at 72.

The Deal Behind Her Nomination

Shiroka Pula emerged as a last-minute consensus candidate. Exit.al reported that Prime Minister Albin Kurti proposed her — a former PDK member — after PDK leader Bedri Hamza agreed late in the evening that his party's 22 lawmakers would join the session, with the Democratic League of Kosovo also participating.

According to Exit.al, the breakthrough was tied to a separate agreement: parliament passed amendments restricting the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, capping sentences at 15 years, requiring they be served in Kosovo, making convicted individuals eligible for presidential pardons, and narrowing the court's jurisdiction window to 1 July 1999–31 December 2000. The PDK had pushed for the changes after the Chambers convicted former President Hashim Thaçi and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders on 16 September — a verdict Al Jazeera said triggered about 20 days of protests in Pristina, including violent incidents.

A Catholic President in a Muslim-Majority Country

Shiroka Pula is described by Exit.al and the outlet Kosovo Dispatch as the first Catholic woman elected president of Kosovo, a country where, according to the 2024 census cited by Kosovo Dispatch, 93.49% of residents are Muslim and 1.75% are Catholic. Kosovo Dispatch reported that her religion was not raised during the political negotiations over her candidacy, framing this as consistent with the country's constitutional provision that the state is secular and neutral in matters of religious belief.

She is Kosovo's third female president, after Atifete Jahjaga and Vjosa Osmani, both elected by parliament in previous terms, according to Al Jazeera.

Analyst Reaction

Donika Emini, an analyst at the University of Graz, told Al Jazeera that the election reflected a mix of political necessity and a need to stabilise institutions after repeated electoral crises, while noting that the underlying political polarisation in Kosovo remains unresolved.