The Constitutional Court has imposed a temporary measure until March 31 against President Vjosa Osmani’s decree dissolving the Kosovo Assembly.
She said that the decision is ex officio and that it prohibits any action by President Osmani regarding the March 6 decree, as well as prohibits any action by the Kosovo Assembly while the temporary measure is in force.
The court said that the measure is valid until it decides the case and that it “is in the function of preventing the causing of irreparable damage to the constitutional order of Kosovo and the democratic functioning of key institutions in Kosovo.”
This means that Osmani cannot announce a date for new elections while the measure is in force, after he dissolved the Assembly through a decree, which was challenged in the Constitutional Court by Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s ruling party, the Vetevendosje Movement.
At the March 5 session, the ruling party presented two candidates for president: Glauk Konjufca and Fatmire Kollçaku-Mullhaxha, after preliminary talks between Kurti and the two main opposition parties, the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo, for a consensual name, had not borne fruit.
The session was interrupted due to lack of quorum, after being abandoned by opposition parties.
A day after the session was adjourned on March 5, Osmani issued a decree dissolving the Assembly and immediately held a meeting of political parties to discuss the date of early elections.
The meeting was attended by leaders of the opposition parties, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, the Democratic League of Kosovo and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, but not the party of Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
Osmani justified her decree, saying that March 5 was the deadline for electing a new president of Kosovo – as her mandate ends on April 4 – but that MPs failed to meet the legal deadlines.
However, the ruling party said that Osman’s decree had no basis, since the procedures for electing the president began on March 5 and there is a 60-day deadline to finalize the process, which is why it appealed to the Constitutional Court.
The President of Kosovo is elected with two-thirds of the votes in the first two rounds or with 61 votes in the third round, but 80 deputies are needed in the chamber for the session to be held.
For the opposition parties, the two figures presented by the ruling party have been unacceptable and they have insisted on a political agreement or the presentation of a consensual figure.
Osmani herself aimed for a second term, but no one proposed her name.
For the ruling party, she did not have the necessary votes, while for other parties she did not personify the necessary unity that the figure of the president needs./ REL