Members of the Kosovo Parliament will gather in another attempt to finalize the process of constituting the institution after the February 9 elections, RSE reported.

This is their 39th meeting in the parliament chamber since April 15, although they are only continuing the 38th session, at which no votes were taken.

They agreed not to vote in the hope that a meeting between political party leaders would yield some results.

That did not happen. Representatives of the political parties met on June 28 and discussed for more than two hours, ultimately continuing to blame each other for the current situation.

The parties met after Kosovo's Constitutional Court issued a ruling requiring MPs to finalize the process of adopting the constitution by July 26 at the latest.

The parliament has not yet been fully formed because the political parties have not reached agreement on the name of the speaker of parliament proposed by the Self-Determination Movement, nor on changing the voting method from public to secret.

Differences in attitudes

Outgoing Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who is also chairman of the “Vetevendos” (LVV) movement, which won the most votes in the February 9 elections – said after the meeting that, in his opinion, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) had misinterpreted the decision of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo and that he had offered them two compromises.

"The first compromise was proposed by our candidate for Speaker of Parliament, Albina Haxhiu, who said she would withdraw her candidacy if she did not receive at least 61 votes in a secret ballot. She did so unilaterally, but I respect her decision. She does not want to vote twice in a secret ballot.“

”The second compromise was to reach a political agreement on Article 67 of the Constitution, which is a package of agreements on the president and vice presidents, and then, if they do not want a secret ballot at all, they would be allowed to delegate their representatives to this secret ballot committee, which we can revoke by a vote because the process is half complete. We delegated Hekuran Muratin there, let the others delegate their representatives, and then we will reject this proposal so that later the president and vice presidents can be voted on as a package."

For the PDK and LDK, Kurti is still sticking to his positions, while they insist that no secret ballot committee should be set up and that the session should move on to an open vote.

According to the PDK, if the session continues as it has been, LVV is deliberately violating the Constitution.

LDK leader Lumir Abdixhiku expressed hope that after the deadline set by the Constitutional Court expires, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani will intervene to end the crisis.

MPs must elect a president and five vice-presidents to finally form a new assembly.

Only after the constitution of the parliament can a new government be formed.

Former president of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, currently professor of law and international relations at the University of Pristina, Enver Hasani, said in an interview a few days ago that the Constitutional Court's decision clearly confirms that the procedure for forming parliament is determined by the Constitution, the Rules of Procedure of Parliament, and parliamentary practice.

"... This means that what Mr. [the chairman of the constituent session, Avni] Dehari did is completely unconstitutional. This means that there can be no deviation from the agreement reached on April 8 [the meeting of political parties to prepare for the constituent session]," Hasani commented.

Professor Hassani pointed out that the Constitutional Court had ruled on the entire procedure for the formation of parliament, including the form of voting.

"The Court ruled on the entire procedure and showed that it must be the same as provided for in the Rules of Procedure, the Constitution, and as decided after all parliamentary elections in Kosovo to date. That is what the Court said. To date, there has never been a change in the agenda by the president, nor has there been a secret ballot," he emphasized, among other things. |BGNES