Tirana-based Kosovo correspondent Llazar Semini, and the Pristina-based team of video journalist Florent Bajrami, photographer Visar Kryeziu, transmission operator Zenel Zhinipotoku and video journalist Sylejman Kllokoqi, delivered textbook coverage with timely and complete all-formats reporting of an election held amid the pandemic, freezing temperatures, an economic downturn and stalled negotiations with wartime foe Serbia.
After weeks of planning for Sunday’s election, Zhinipotoku offered live coverage of the early vote while Kllokoqi and Bajrami had shots of the top candidates casting their ballots at other polling stations. After the polls closed, the video crew and photographer Kryeziu ran from the city’s main square to the headquarters and offered shots of the winners' celebration.
At left, Kosovars wait to vote in parliamentary elections in the capital Pristina, Feb. 14, 2021. At right, leftist opposition leader Albin Kurti, leader of Vetevendosje! (Self-Determination Movement Party), speaks during an interview with the AP, Feb. 15, 2021. Kurti is poised to become prime minister after his party won a clear victory in Kosovo’s early election.
AP Photos / Visar Kryeziu
The following day, Semini and team were rewarded for weeks of contact building, landing an interview with incoming Prime Minister Albin Kurti, which was carried live by AP.