Kurti’s ruling Vetevendosje party has about 41% of the votes with 88% counted. He gained 50% in 2021.

He said he was confident he would be able to form a government, adding: “We are the [winners] and this is confirmation of a good, prosperous and democratic government.”

There was a delay in announcing the official results due to the failure of the Central Election Commission’s counting system.

President Vjosa Osmani has called on the commission to “protect the integrity of the electoral process, ensuring that every vote is counted correctly”.

The commission blamed the delay on “technical issues”, but the editor of the media group Koha said the president should sack the commission’s chair.

Besnik Krasniqi said the failure of the system for preliminary results was “intolerable”.

The centre-left Vetevendosje party is expected to secure more than 40 seats in the 120-member parliament.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) is polling 22%, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) is on 18%, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) has 8%. These are the only parties which passed the 5% threshold to gain seats in parliament.

Kurti came to power in 2021 when a coalition run by his party secured a small majority with over 50% of the vote.

Before any results were officially declared Kurti said: “Our coalition will form our third government.

“It will continue the work. The people won, Vetevendosje won.”

Kurti’s popularity has been boosted by efforts to extend government control over the ethnic-Serb majority north.

But that has antagonised Kosovo’s main backers – the EU and the US. Opposition parties advocate a more conciliatory approach, and have criticised the government’s handling of the economy.

The centre-right LDK has campaigned on joining Nato, and restoring relations with the US. The PDK, also centre-right, was founded by former guerrilla fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

“We are proud of the campaign and the election day. We await the results, but already we have reason to be optimistic,” said Vlora Citaku, deputy PDK leader.

Meanwhile, AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj, a former prime minister of the country, said he was “looking forward to co-operating on the creation of an opposition government” to prevent Kurti’s return to power.

Under Kosovo’s constitution, 10 MPs must come from the Serb minority, and they will not co-operate with Kurti’s party.

The remaining 10 seats are reserved for other minority ethnic groups, which have previously worked with Vetevendosje, which translates as “self-determination”.

Kurti has previously said he would not co-operate with any of the opposition parties.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, after years of strained relations between its Serb and mainly ethnic Albanian inhabitants.

It has been recognised by the US and most major EU countries, but Serbia, backed by its powerful ally Russia, refuses to do so, as do most ethnic Serbs inside Kosovo.

Voting began at 7am local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday, according to the Central Election Commission, as Kosovars headed to the polling stations to elect a new parliament and cabinet in a contentious race also focused on the economy and corruption.

Polls will remain open until 18:00 GMT – the ninth such vote in Kosovo since the end of the 1998-99 war that pushed Serbian forces out of the self-declared republic.

Sunday’s vote, a key test for Kurti, will elect 120 lawmakers to the assembly, determining who leads Kosovo’s stalled negotiations on normalising ties with Serbia.

Kurti’s  left-wing Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination Movement party, which has sought to dismantle remaining Serbian institutions in Kosovo, is seen as the frontrunner in the election. But the party is not expected to win the necessary majority to govern alone, leaving open the possibility the other two contenders join ranks if he fails to form a cabinet.

The  other contenders are the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), whose main leaders are accused of war crimes at The Hague tribunal, and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the republic’s oldest party.

The opposition parties have made big-ticket pledges to increase public salaries and pensions, improve education and healthcare services and fight poverty.

Kosovo, with a population of 1.6 million, is among the poorest in Europe with an annual gross domestic product of less than 6,000 euros ($6,200) per person.

Kurti, whose government is the first in Kosovo’s history to finish its full term in office, has had a turbulent rule, marked by regular unrest between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

Tensions spiked after negotiations backed by the European Union and the United States between Kosovo and Serbia all but collapsed in March 2023.

In the aftermath, NATO peacekeepers were assaulted by rioting Serbs, a deadly armed standoff in the north sent regional tensions soaring, and an explosion targeting a canal vital to Kosovo’s power plants late last year saw Kurti blaming Belgrade.

Kurti  also drew Western criticism for controversial measures he took last year, such as a ban on using the Serbian dinar and transfers from Serbia to Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority members who depend on Belgrade’s social services and payments.

The US, the EU and the NATO-led stabilisation force KFOR have urged the government in Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions, fearing the revival of interethnic conflict.

While Kurti retains a strong support base, his opponents have denounced him for the fraying ties with the US and the EU.

Shpend Kursani, a lecturer at the University of Tartu told Al Jazeera that voters most identify Kurti with “anti-corruption, national dignity and being – at least from a Balkan perspective – an honest politician”.

Opposition parties, however, blame Kurti’s willingness to confront Serbia as costing the country support and funding from the international community, even as he was able to secure the sale of anti-tank Javelin missiles from the US, Kursani said.

“It’s the same with Turkey; he purchased drones and what not, so the support from international communities is a bit mixed,” Kursani said. “He’s largely not corrupt… and it’s very difficult [for outside powers] to manage these small country leaders if they are not corrupt.”

KFOR has increased its presence in Kosovo and added more forces for the election. A team of 100 observers from the EU, 18 from the Council of Europe, and about 1,600 others from international or local organisations will also monitor the vote.