Shpend Ahmeti
Shpend Ali Ahmeti (born 18 April 1978, Pristina) is a Kosovo Albanian politician who served as the Mayor of Pristina. He was leader of the New Spirit Party, which merged into Vetëvendosje 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 before he became mayor. In the first round of elections on 3 November 2013, Ahmeti was around 8,000 votes behind Isa Mustafa, 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 eventually confirmed, ending 15 years of LDK tenure in the capital of Kosovo. In October 2017 he ran in 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