Constitutional Court of Kosovo: The election of Rashic as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly was unconstitutional

2026-01-28 15:56:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Constitutional Court of Kosovo: The election of Rashic as Deputy Speaker of the

The Constitutional Court of Kosovo ruled that the election of Nenad Rashic to the position of Deputy Speaker of the Assembly from the ranks of the Serbian community in the previous legislature was not in accordance with the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly.

In announcing the verdict, the Court said on January 28 that it "in the circumstances of the present case has no retroactive effect."

The issue of the deputy speakers of the Kosovo Assembly

On October 16, 2025, the Serbian List – the largest Serb party in Kosovo that enjoys the support of Belgrade – filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court regarding the election of the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly from among the Serb community, claiming that the Constitution, the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, as well as a previous judgment of the Constitutional Court, were violated.

The new Kosovo Assembly was constituted on October 10, with the election of Nenad Rashic as deputy speaker from the Serbian community. His election came after the nine deputies of the Serbian List, despite being voted on three times, failed to receive the necessary votes.

The highest court in the country had already handled a complaint by the Serbian List regarding the issue of deputy speakers, after the Speaker of Parliament Dimal Basha declared the Assembly constituted without the election of a fifth deputy speaker from the Serbian community.

The Court then found that the Assembly was not constituted, requiring the deputies to elect the deputy speaker from among the Serb community, in order to pave the way for the formation of the Government.

In that decision, the Constitutional Court said that the proposal for the vice-president from among the non-majority communities, in this case the Serbian minority, must be made by the majority or the largest number of deputies from among the deputies of the Serbian community.

After the Serbian List deputies did not receive a sufficient number of votes, the Speaker of the Assembly, Dimal Basha, requested that the election of the Serbian deputy speaker proceed through a draw, enabling the other Serbian deputy, Nenad Rashic from the For Freedom, Justice and Survival party, to be elected deputy speaker.

Rasic was a minister in Albin Kurti's government, leading the Department for Communities and Returns. The Serbian List argued that Rasic's election was "illegitimate" and warned that the elections would lose their meaning if the majority of Albanian MPs imposed representatives on Serbs, thus legalizing "the violence of the majority against the minority."

A day after Rashic's election, Kosovo's president, Vjosa Osmani, had mandated the leader of the Vetëvendosje Movement, Albin Kurti, to form a new government. However, neither Kurti nor the second candidate, Glauk Konjufca, managed to form a government and the country went to new elections on December 28. /REL