Political impasse continues in Kosovo/Today, the 39th session for the constitution of the Assembly

2025-06-29 11:32:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Political impasse continues in Kosovo/Today, the 39th session for the

Members of the Kosovo Assembly will gather on Sunday in another attempt to finalize the process of constituting this institution after the February 9 elections.

This is the 39th time they have gathered in the Assembly hall since April 15, although on Sunday they are only continuing the 38th session from Friday, in which they did not vote.

They have agreed not to vote, in the hope that Saturday's meeting between political party leaders would produce some results.

That's not what happened. Representatives of political parties met on June 28 and discussed for over two hours, and in the end they continued to blame each other for the current situation.

The parties met after the Constitutional Court of Kosovo issued a ruling on Thursday that obliges MPs to finalize the constitution process by July 26th at the latest.

The Assembly continues to be incompletely constituted as political parties have not reached agreement on the name proposed by the Vetëvendosje Movement for the position of Speaker of Parliament, as well as on changing the voting method from open to secret.

Differences in attitudes

Kosovo's acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, also the leader of the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV) - which won the most votes in the February 9 elections - said after Saturday's meeting that he believes the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) are misreading the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo and announced that he has offered what he described as two compromises.

"The first compromise was what our proposed candidate for Speaker of the Assembly, Albulena Haxhiu, said, who said that in case of a secret ballot, she does not receive at least 61 votes, she will withdraw from the candidacy. She did this unilaterally, but I respect her decision. She does not want to be voted on twice by secret ballot."

"The second compromise was to make a political agreement regarding Article 67 of the Constitution, which is a package agreement for the president and vice presidents, and then if they don't want the secret ballot at all, let them delegate their representatives to this commission for a secret ballot, which we can reject by vote, because the process is half-finished. We have delegated Hekuran Murat there, let them delegate others, and then we reject him, so that later the president and vice presidents can be voted on as a package."

For PDK and LDK, Kurti continues to be steadfast in his stances, and they insist that a secret ballot committee not be formed and that the session be moved to open voting.

According to PDK, if the session continues to be held as in the past, LVV is knowingly committing a violation of the Constitution.

LDK President Lumir Abdixhiku has said that he hopes that after the deadline set by the Constitutional Court expires, the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, will intervene to end the crisis.

The deputies must elect the president and five vice presidents to finally constitute the new Assembly.

Only after the constitution of the Assembly can the new Government be formed.

The former President of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, currently a professor of Law and International Relations at the University of Pristina, Enver Hasani, said in an interview with Radio Free Europe a few days ago that the Constitutional Court's verdict clearly confirmed that the procedure for the constitution of the Assembly is determined by the Constitution, the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly and parliamentary practices.

"...which means that what was done by Mr. [the chairman of the constitutive session, Avni] Dehari is completely unconstitutional. It means that there can be no deviation from the agreement reached on April 8 [the meeting of political parties to prepare the constitutive session]," said Hasani.

At the April 8 meeting, no decision was made for a secret ballot.

Professor Hasani says that the Constitutional Court decided on the entire procedure for the constitution of the Assembly, including the form in which voting takes place.

"It has decided on the entire procedure and has shown that the procedure should be the same, as stated in the Regulation, the Constitution and as has been decided after every parliamentary election in Kosovo so far. This is what the Court has said. And to date, there has never been a change in the agenda by the chairperson and no secret ballot has been held," he said, among other things./ Rel