Democratic League of Kosovo

The Democratic League of Kosovo (Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës, LDK) is the second largest political party in Kosovo. It is a conservative and liberal conservative party; the main right-wing party in Kosovo.

At the legislative elections held on 24 October 2004 the party won 45.4% of the popular vote or 47 out of 120 seats (seven of which have now defected to the Nexhat Daci-led Democratic League of Dardania). One of the founding members, Ibrahim Rugova was president of the party, as well as President of Kosovo, until his death on 21 January 2006. At the last legislative elections held on 17 November 2007, the party won only 22.6% and 25 seats but went on to form a Coalition government with Hashim Thaçi's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK).

History
During the late 1980s, nationalism was on the rise throughout the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Since 1974 the province of Kosovo, although part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, was a self-governed entity over which the Serbian parliament had almost no factual control (see Political status of Kosovo). In the late 1980s, civil unrest which had been striking the province for decades, suddenly erupted further in Kosovo as ethnic Albanians demanded more autonomy (in view of independence). At the same time, Serbian Communists' leader Slobodan Milošević used the situation in Kosovo as a political means to win popularity among Serbs. In 1989, he abolished the autonomy of Kosovo using amendments to the Serbian Constitution, reverting Kosovo to its pre-1974 status, thus restoring Serbia's control of the province. In response, a group of Albanian intellectuals gathered the same year to form the Democratic League of Kosovo, which opposed these measures, as well as the ratification of Kosovo's parliament in 1990 which returned the level of Kosovo's autonomy to how it had been sixteen years earlier.

Because of its ideology, which was deemed nationalist and separatist, it was banned by the Yugoslavian authorities, together with the self-styled shadow Kosovo Parliament that opposed the ratifications of Kosovo's real assembly in July 1990. As a result, its members proclaimed in protest on the steps of the parliament building the "Republic of Kosova", independent from Yugoslavia, which drafted its own constitution. Claiming that conditions for Albanians were not addressed, the LDK successfully called for a boycott of the Kosovar Albanians of the first free elections in 1990. Following the 1991 population census, in which LDK President Rugova also called for boycott, resulting in only 9,091 Albanians recorded which composed around 2.53% of the Kosovar population, the LDK called the Albanian people to leave and boycott all state institutions until the solution of the Albanian national question. The LDK opposed the centralized control imposed by Belgrade, which reintroduced the Serbian language as the language of Kosovo as well as making other implementations; and they were growing deeply concerned about Belgrade's handling of the Albanian populace with regards to the wider group interests.

By the Spring of 1991, the LDK had its basis in the diaspora in Zurich, Stuttgart and Brussels and numbered a massive membership of approximately 700,000 people. In September 1991 the LDK-constituted shadow Albanian parliament of the self-styled Republic of Kosova adopted a resolution supporting full-scale "Independence and Sovereignty of Kosovo". The LDK then led the "Coordinating Committee of Albanian Political Parties in Yugoslavia" that included most ethnic Albanian political parties in the country. The decision was that only two choices are viable for peace and stability of the region: 1) unification of all Albanian-populated areas in Yugoslavia, or 2) an undivided Albanian state of all Albanians in the Balkans

The LDK was one of the chief organizers of a poorly organized referendum for self-determination in 1992, on which 87% of the Albanian population in Kosovo (numbering 80% of the province's population) voted for independence, which was declared illegal and further drove the rift between the Albanians and the Serbians. In 1992 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed and Kosovo remained an autonomous province of the Republic of Serbia. The LDK successfully called the Albanians, this time those in Central Serbia too, in the Preševo Valley, for a boycott of the general elections.

The LDK expressed bitterness when Kosovo was ignored during the Dayton Accords in 1995 that were supposed to end all Yugoslavian conflicts. Supporting an Albanian resistance movement the "National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo", it abandoned support of the subsequently organized Kosovo Liberation Army which used violent means to achieve its goals. After 1997, there was a change in the government of Albania, with a first democratic cabinet formed, and most LDK members abandoned the desire to unite Kosovo with Albania. LDK's desire for a peaceful solution to the Kosovo conflict lost support among the population and was replaced by the militarist KLA when almost an all-out war erupted in late 1998 and 1999 between the KLA and the Yugoslavian and Serbian forces. Severe atrocities against the Albanian population in Kosovo met with harsh criticism from the LDK. With recommendations from the United States, the LDK abandoned pursuits for an independent Kosovo and sought negotiations with Belgrade about a level of substantial autonomy for Kosovo, with Ibrahim Rugova traveling to Belgrade and meeting President Milošević (now federal leader) on this matter. The act was criticized by the Albanian public and further downgraded the LDK's popularity. After the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in 1999, the LDK leading members were present on the signing of the Kumanovo Treaty that adopted the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and formalized the cessation of hostilities in Kosovo. However, despite signing that the future of Kosovo would be negotiated as an autonomous entity within Yugoslavia, the LDK continually supported the independence of Kosovo.

While still the second largest political party in Kosovo, the LDK's support has steadily declined since Kosovo's first elections (municipal) in 2001. Other political parties, including those linked to the former Kosovo Liberation Army, such as the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), have scored much gains at LDK's expense.

The President of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu, and the former Chair of Assembly of Kosovo, Kolë Berisha, are members of the Democratic League of Kosovo.

The party is presided by a president and five vice-presidents. The current president of the party is Fatmir Sejdiu.