Analysts: Kurti’s 60 percent vote target in elections is pressure on the opposition and citizens

Analysts in Kosovo assess that the target of winning 60 percent of votes in the elections on June 7, presented by Self-Determination Movement leader Albin Kurti, represents pressure on the opposition and citizens, and could endanger democratic standards.

Analyst Afrim Kasolli believes that Kurti’s 60 percent target is a form of political pressure.

“That is pressure on opposition parties, but also on citizens, because if he does not win 60 percent, the country goes to elections again,” Kasolli told RTV21.

Kasolli believes that Kurti used a similar strategy in 2025, when he called for 500,000 votes. However, he adds that the situation has now changed and that Kosovo, despite economic problems, is no longer at risk of an economic collapse as it was at the end of 2025. He adds that Kurti should not “confuse wishes with facts.”

“He used a similar pressure strategy toward citizens last year as well. However, at that time there was a specific situation because the state budget had not been adopted and there was a real risk of collapse, whereas now that is not the case. Kurti should not, as he himself said, confuse wishes with facts,” Kasolli said.

University professor Kol Krasniqi assessed that Kurti’s target of 60 percent of votes in Kosovo’s weak institutional system could endanger democratic standards.

“The situation in Kosovo is specific because in a weak institutional system, elements that endanger democracy can easily appear. Parliamentary democracy is not measured only by numbers, but also by the possibility of political pluralism and opposition oversight,” Krasniqi said.

Kurti recently stated that he aims for even further growth in the upcoming elections, saying that his party could reach 60 percent of the vote.

“Snap elections are coming exactly five months after the last elections, when we won 51 percent of the vote. They came 10 months after the elections in which we won 42 percent of the vote. So from February to December we grew by nine percent, and if we grow by the same amount from December to June, then we can reach 60 percent,” he said during a session of the General Council of the Self-Determination Movement.