Atifete Jahiaga Elected As Kosovo's First Female President

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Kosovo's parliament has elected Atifete Jahjaga as its new president, the first woman to head the state.

The 35-year-old received 80 votes, with no votes against, in Thursday's parliament session.

Jahjaga was a compromise candidate in a U.S.-brokered deal between Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, businessman Behgjet Pacolli and the head of the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa.

The Kosovo Constitutional Court had ruled that Pacolli's February election win had breached the constitution because an opposition boycott left fewer lawmakers in the parliament for the vote then required by law. The opposition threatened to repeat the boycott if Pacolli ran again.

Jahjaga, the deputy head of Kosovo's police, has no political background and had never run for office before.

"I never thought that I could reach such a high political position," Jahjaga told the assembly minutes after being sworn in. "But I have always been ready to serve my country."

Kosovo and Serbia are locked in EU-sponsored talks aimed at resolving their disputes, although Belgrade has vowed never to recognize the independence of its former province.

"We can't change the past, so we must build the future," Jahjaga said. "The dialogue will be successful"

Suzana Novoberdaliu, another female candidate, was also nominated to meet a legal requirement of having at least two candidates for the vote to count. Novoberdaliu got 10 votes, while 10 were inadmissible.

An opposition party that holds 14 seats in the 120-seat assembly walked out in protest at Pacolli's nomination.

Jahjaga is expected to remain in the post for six months before legal reforms pave the way for the head of state to be elected in a direct vote, as part of the deal brokered by United States Ambassador Christopher Dell.

Jahjaga is Kosovo's third president since the territory seceded from Serbia in 2008.

Serbia claims Kosovo as its own and rejects its declaration of independence.

Comments

[Seremb]

03:46 AM on 04/15/2011

Interesting enough - Madam President Jahjaga is the head of the country 2222 years after Queen Teuta of the Ilyrian Empire. Queen Teuta was the strongest women ever - now Jhjaga is building the youngest country ever. http://seremb.blogspot.com

[wowme]

07:14 PM on 04/08/2011

Yay another muslim country beats the US

[Angry Cloud]

09:48 PM on 04/08/2011

Many of Europe's Christian countries have already had women heads of state.

[channala]

02:44 PM on 05/06/2011

So has India, secular country, though majority Hindu.

[biabouman41]

12:58 PM on 05/23/2011

India, Shri Lanka. Indonesia, Liberia, Brazil and others have long had female heads of State.

[Dec2086Lover]

06:43 PM on 04/08/2011

Another Muslim country elects a female head of state,just last year Kyrgyzstan saw a female president come to power when they overthrew their dictator.

[Serbian American]

11:35 PM on 04/08/2011

Kosovo and Metohija (KiM) is not a country. Check UN resolution 1244. Marti Ahtisaari's Kosovo status proposal have not been accepted by Serbian nor was it endorsed by UN or UN Security Council. BTW, you are referring to KiM as a "Muslim" country. In 1929 There was about 35% Muslims and 65% Christians. After WW2, communists did not allow Christians to return to their land in KiM. Now there is about 90% Muslims ... What happened?

[LALC]

11:53 PM on 04/08/2011

Country or not, she was still elected president of parliament. A 35 y.o with 100% of the vote no less!

[Rozanna]

04:53 AM on 04/09/2011

Why not let go of the past? These people want their independence. .

[LALC]

11:57 PM on 04/08/2011

Then there was Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, back in the 90's.

[Enver Sulejman]

04:39 PM on 04/08/2011

Congratulation - Atifete Jahjaga! Europe and the world need more strong minded female presidents like you. More girl power = more peaceful world. Cheers!

[Trustfunded1]

03:38 PM on 04/08/2011

How did she escape the slave and drug traffickers that permeate that country?

Oh wait a minute....I get it!
She's the kind and gentle face of the gangsters running Kosovo.

[Chrystal Ji Davey]

01:28 PM on 04/08/2011

Yay! :)

[Al Cadena]

01:26 PM on 04/08/2011

The more gender balance we have in government--actually, in all spheres of life--the more likely we will be able to come to better decisions.

[CAMBEL]

10:50 AM on 04/08/2011

Good to see.

[Serbian American]

10:31 AM on 04/08/2011

Local news in Serbia are reporting Mr. Pacoli witnessing a pressure form US ambassador in Priština for electing Mrs. Jahjaga for KiM president. Here's the link to the news article:

http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2011&mm=04&dd=08&nav_category=640&nav_id=504857

[JazzArtLove]

09:35 AM on 04/08/2011

Well thats pretty Bad @ss!

[p456]

08:12 AM on 04/08/2011

Nice good for Kosovo.

[Seremb]

03:09 AM on 04/08/2011

Kosova is independent country since 2008. Recognized by 78 UN countries. The international tribunal recognized the Declaration of Independence as official and in accordance to the UN law. Electing a female president - the first country in the Balkans - shows how democratic Kosovars are. It will pas another 50 years until neighboring countries will elect a female president. Serbia killed and massacred 15.000 people in Kosova. Who is the criminal here?
Atifete Jahjaga is the symbol of the new Kosovo democracy. http://seremb.blogspot.com/2011/04/atifete-jahjaga-first-kosovo-female.html

[Serbian American]

12:30 PM on 04/08/2011

Kosovo and Metohija (KiM) is not an independent Country (see UN resolution 1244). It is mostly countries that were involved in unlawful use of NATO military over Yugoslavia that recognized "supervised independence" of KiM. International Court of Justice advisory opinion, was that the ACT of declaring independence of KiM was not against international law. This was about a freedom of speech, not about declaring KiM independent and taking land from the Republic of Serbia. Please check the United Nations document A/RES/63/3 and International Court of Justice General List No. 141.

[Dec2086Lover]

06:41 PM on 04/08/2011

Regardless,Kosovo is an independent country,nothing will change that.Serbia will never rule Kosovo,nothing it or it's ally Russia can do about it.Too bad Milosevic did the things he did,or else maybe Kosovo would have still been part of Serbia.Look I'm not saying Serbia is evil or that Kosovo is perfect,I have nothing against Serbia.

[Atif Ahmed Choudhury]

12:46 AM on 04/08/2011

Hurray for Muslim women empowerment!!! Glad to know she will be joining the growing ranks of (past and present) Muslim female heads of state:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_political_leaders_in_Islam_and_in_Muslim-majority_countries#Female_leaders

[Eleanor Ruby Moon]

05:49 PM on 05/22/2011

See, I congratulate everyone here but look how religion is dividing us all. We're broken down into subsets of Muslim women, Christian women, Hindu women, Jewish women. What good is that doing anyone? Any institution that by definition divides and separates us (to the point of kiling one another in order to keep the separation in tact) is actually working against our betterment as a species.

[Olivier Zimmermann]

10:51 PM on 05/24/2011

The article doesn't say she's Muslim and there's no reason to think so ;)

[desertsapien]

11:30 PM on 04/07/2011

Perhaps we will see a whole new country emerge.