00:01Lawmakers in Kosovo elected economist and academic Justyna Shiroka Pula as the country's new president in a marathon late-night
00:08parliament session on Wednesday.
00:11The election came just moments before a constitutional deadline that would have forced a snap election.
00:17It marks a significant moment in a political crisis in the small Balkan nation that has caused legislative deadlock for
00:2319 months and two early parliamentary elections.
00:27Pula secured 81 votes in the 120-seat strong parliament during its extraordinary session.
00:34Thousands gathered outside the building demanding the passing of a law to limit the powers of a special court in
00:39The Hague,
00:40set up to prosecute war crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army during the country's 1998 War of Independence from
00:47Serbia.
00:48Her election came after over two weeks of protests following a verdict by the court convicting four of Kosovo's wartime
00:55rebel leaders of war crimes,
00:57including the country's former president, Hashim Taci, who were sentenced to between 13 and 25 years in prison.
01:04The legislation was adopted by lawmakers prior to Pula's election, which now awaits her presidential endorsement to come into effect.
01:14Shiroka Pula served as the head of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo before being elected to the
01:19largely ceremonial role of president,
01:21where she's the third female to hold that office.
01:25She was a last-minute candidate backed by the ruling self-determination movement and the largest opposition party,
01:31the Democratic Party of Kosovo.
01:33Dr. Kosovo
01:35D.
01:35D.
