The Kosovo assembly has failed to elect a new president within the constitutional deadline due to a lack of the required number of votes, which puts the country on the verge of its third snap general election.

Only representatives of the ruling Self-Determination Movement and representatives of non-Serb minorities participated in the vote.

The groups met four times during the day, but their 64 votes were not enough to elect a head of state, which requires a two-thirds majority of 120 representatives.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti, whose party won 51 percent of the ballot in December, has been unable to muster broad support for any candidate he proposed.

Assembly Speaker and Acting President Albulena Haxhiu have said that invitations had been extended to opposition parties, including the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo, but that they had refused to participate in the sessions.

Kurti previously warned that early elections would not produce a fundamentally different result, bringing only "a continuation of legislative and institutional agony".

In the coming days, Haxhiu is expected to call early parliamentary elections.

According to the Constitution, these polls must be held within 45 days.