Kosovo Profiel Gouvernement

name: Pristina (Prishtine, Prishtina)

geographic coordinates: 42 40 N, 21 10 E

time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October

17 Februari 2008 (from Serbia)

Independence Day, 17 Februari (2008)

history: previous 1974, 1990; latest (postindependence) draft finalized 2 April 2008, signed 7 April 2008, ratified 9 April 2008, entered into force 15 Juni 2008; note - amendment 24, passed by the Assembly in Augustus 2015, established the Kosovo Relocated Specialist Institution, referred to as the Kosovo Specialist Chamber or "Specialist Court," to try war crimes allegedly committed by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army in the late 1990s

amendments: proposed by the government, by the president of the republic, or by one fourth of Assembly deputies; passage requires two-thirds majority vote of the Assembly, including two-thirds majority vote of deputies representing non-majority communities, followed by a favorable Constitutional Court assessment; amended several times, last in 2016 (2016)

18 jaar; universal

chief of state: President Hashim THACI (since 7 April 2016)

head of government: Prime Minister (vacant); note - Prime Minister Ramush HARADINAJ (since 9 September 2017) resigned on 19 July 2019

cabinet: Cabinet elected by the Assembly

elections/appointments: president indirectly elected by at least two-thirds majority vote of the Assembly for a 5-year term; if a candidate does not attain a two-thirds threshold in the first two ballots, the candidate winning a simple majority vote in the third ballot is elected (eligible for a second term); election last held on 26 February 2016 (next to be held in 2021); prime minister indirectly elected by the Assembly

election results: Hashim THACI elected president in the third ballot; Assembly vote - Hashim THACI (PDK) 71, Rafet RAMA (PDK) 0, invalid 10; Ramush HARADINAJ nominated prime minister by the president and elected by the Assembly, receiving 61 votes out of 62 (1 abstention)