Kosovo's parliament elected economist and academic Justina Shiroka Pula as the country's new president in the early hours of Wednesday.

She received 81 votes in the 120-seat Assembly, one more than the two-thirds majority required. The vote came minutes after the constitutional deadline, preventing another snap election in the Balkan nation.

Pula, 73, previously served as president of the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts and as minister of energy and mining from 2008 to 2011. She becomes the third woman to hold the largely ceremonial office, following Atifete Jahjaga and Vjosa Osmani.

The election followed a last-minute agreement between Prime Minister Albin Kurti's ruling Vetevendosje party and the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo. The deal included amendments to limit the powers of the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the court handling war crimes cases from the Kosovo conflict.

Failure to elect a president by the deadline would have triggered early parliamentary elections, as occurred in June. Protests had taken place outside parliament in recent days over the court issue.

Pula took the oath of office shortly after the vote and pledged to serve as president for all citizens while supporting Euro-Atlantic integration.

Her selection ended a months-long political deadlock that began after Osmani’s term concluded in April 2026. The presidency requires broad consensus in Kosovo's fragmented political system.