Shpend Ali Ahmeti (born 18 April 1978,

Pristina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in District of Pristina, Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population o ...

) is a Kosovo Albanian politician who served as the Mayor of

. He was leader of the New Spirit Party, which merged into

Vetëvendosje Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (, en, Self-determination Movement; LVV) is a centre-left to left-wing political party in Kosovo. It is orientated towards principles of social democracy, populism, and Albanian nationalism. Vetëvendosje was founded in ...

in 2011, and served as their vice chairman. However, after internal disputes he left the party in 2018 to become the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Kosovo. In 2019 he became an independent politician. Ahmeti lectured public policy at the

American University in Kosovo RIT Kosovo, formerly known as the American University in Kosovo, is a private university located in the Germia district of Pristina, Kosovo. The university was established in 2002 and is part of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in the ...

before he became mayor. In the first round of elections on 3 November 2013, Ahmeti was around 8,000 votes behind

Isa Mustafa Isa Mustafa (; born 15 May 1951) is a retired Kosovar politician. Mustafa was the mayor of Pristina from December 2007 to December 2013 and served as the prime minister of Kosovo between December 2014 and September 2017. He was the leader of the ...

, but in the second round on 1 December 2013 he won by around 2,500 votes. Mustafa accused Ahmeti of fraud. Ahmeti's win was confirmed afterwards ending 15 years of LDK tenure in the capital of Kosovo. In October 2017 he run for the local elections as a candidate of Vetëvendosje again and successfully managed to keep his position as mayor of Prishtina.

Education

He has completed university studies in Economics and Business Administration at the American University in Bulgaria, during the years 1996–2000, specializing in Applied Economics and Business Administration. During the studies between the years 1999–2002, Mr. Ahmeti was senator and then the President of the Student Government at

American University in Bulgaria The American University in Bulgaria (or AUBG) is a private university located in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Established in 1991, today AUBG has about 1,000 students from over 40 countries on 5 continents (as of Fall 2019). Close to 50% of the student ...

, as well as leader of various communities (from more than ten countries) through the period of reforms at university. At the American Universities, involvement in the students’ government is the experience that combines knowledge, organization, confronting the protection of the rights and responsibility of faith from friends and colleagues.

Employment

Ahmeti worked for

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

o
Kosovo's Public Expenditure Review
and for European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.

References

Living people 1978 births Mayors of Pristina Vetëvendosje politicians Harvard Kennedy School alumni {{Kosovo-politician-stub