Nexhat Daci

Nexhat Daci was born on 26 July 1944 in Tërnoc i Madh (Serbian: Veliki Trnovac), a largely Albanian village in the municipality of Bujanovac in the Preševo Valley of southern Serbia, at the time part of Yugoslavia during the Second World War. He finished secondary school between 1956 and 1960 and went on to study chemistry in Belgrade. He spoke Albanian, Serbo-Croatian and English, with a passive knowledge of German.

Daci earned a diploma in chemistry from the University of Belgrade (1962 to 1966) and a master of science there (1966 to 1968). He completed a PhD in chemistry at the Faculty of Technology of the University of Zagreb (1969 to 1973). He also studied English in Folkestone, England (1971), undertook postgraduate work in Liège, Belgium (1972), worked with Hydroprojekt in Brno, Czechoslovakia (1973), and did post-doctoral studies at the University of Bradford in England (1974 to 1975).

Daci joined the University of Prishtina's chemistry section as an assistant in 1968, becoming a lecturer in 1970, associate professor in 1974 and full professor in 1984. He headed the chemistry section in the early 1970s and was a visiting professor in Tirana in 1979. His research covered the structure of the organic matter and inorganic components of Kosovo coal, analyses of ash from thermal power plants, and environmental protection, in particular the waters of Kosovo's reservoir lakes and rivers. He led the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts project on identifying pollutants in urban and industrial wastewater (2012 to 2014). He wrote university textbooks and monographs, including Organic Chemistry and Structure of Organic Substances of Kosovo Coal, and co-authored a study in Chemistry for Environmental Protection (Elsevier, 1987). He became a member of the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1994, served as its general secretary, and was its president. Prime Minister Albin Kurti said he led the Academy twice, from 1999 to 2004 and from 2018 to 2019; English Wikipedia gives 1998 to 2002 for his first term.

A member of Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and of its General Council from its early years, Daci was elected to the parallel Kosovo parliament in 1992. After the 1999 war he was elected to the new Assembly of Kosovo created under UN administration and on 10 December 2001 became its first Speaker, a post he held until 10 March 2006. When Rugova died on 21 January 2006, Daci served as acting President of Kosovo until Fatmir Sejdiu took office in February 2006. In early March 2006, as the governing coalition reshuffled, he refused at first to step down as Speaker but was replaced by Kolë Berisha. He lost the LDK leadership contest to Sejdiu on 9 December 2006 by 189 votes to 160, then broke away in January 2007 to found the Democratic League, renamed the Democratic League of Dardania (LDD) at its first convention on 17 February 2007. In the 17 November 2007 election the LDD and the Albanian Christian Democratic Party won 9.97 percent and 11 seats. Daci signed Kosovo's Declaration of Independence on 17 February 2008 and served in the Assembly until 2011. On 30 April 2015 he announced that the LDD would merge back into the LDK.

Daci was married to Zineta Daci and they had three children. The family lived in the Velania neighbourhood of Prishtina. Their son Arian Daci, a pharmacist and from November 2017 Deputy Minister of Diaspora and Strategic Investments in the Haradinaj government, died on 26 January 2019, aged 40, when an avalanche struck while he was skiing off-piste at Brezovica. A daughter announced the funeral arrangements after her father's death in 2026; her name was not widely reported.

Daci belonged to the moderate, Rugova-led wing of Kosovo Albanian politics that pursued independence through institutions and diplomacy. He described his breakaway Democratic League as a continuation of the party created and led by Rugova, and the name Dardania echoed Rugova's own symbolism for Kosovo. Analysts placed the LDD on the conservative centre-right. Kurti described him as a balancing figure between opposing poles and as the antithesis of polarisation in Kosovo politics.

As the first Speaker of the post-war Assembly, Daci helped shape parliamentary practice in Kosovo's provisional institutions in the years before independence. Speaker Dimal Basha said he left an indelible mark on the history of parliamentary democracy in Kosovo. Kurti called him a scientist before he became an intellectual, an intellectual before he became a politician, and a leader of state institutions before he became head of a party. As a chemist he left a large body of work on Kosovo's coal and environment and taught generations of students at the University of Prishtina.

Daci was elected a regular member of the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1994 and served as its president. He was a member of the European Academy for Environmental Affairs (from 1987) and the American Chemical Society (from 1985). After his death he received a state funeral with a commemorative academy in the Assembly of Kosovo. No other state decorations were confirmed in available sources.

Daci wrote or co-wrote about ten school and university textbooks and was involved in some 120 scientific projects, according to his official biography. Notable works include Organic Chemistry, Structure of Organic Substances of Kosovo Coal, and a chapter in Chemistry for Environmental Protection (Elsevier, 1987). He gave long television interviews in later life, including on Klan Kosova (2018), RTK (2018) and Gazeta Express.

Daci's removal as Speaker in March 2006 followed open infighting within the LDK after Rugova's death; he initially refused to resign. The December 2006 LDK convention where he lost to Sejdiu ended in a brawl started by one of his supporters, according to a US diplomatic cable. Early reports on his new LDD in 2007 noted complaints about an autocratic leadership style.

Nexhat Daci died in Prishtina on 1 January 2026, aged 81. The news was announced by Speaker Dimal Basha, and the cause of death was not made public. On 2 January 2026 homage was paid at his coffin in the lobby of the Assembly of Kosovo, a commemorative academy was held in the plenary hall with President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Speaker Dimal Basha, former President Fatmir Sejdiu and Academy President Justina Shiroka-Pula present, and he was buried with state honours at the Dragodan (Arbëri) Cemetery in Prishtina. The family received condolences from 3 to 5 January at the Hotel Sirius in Prishtina.