Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has called on opposition parties to urgently agree on the election of a new president of the country by October 6. Last week, the Constitutional Court obliged lawmakers to elect the head of state by that date; otherwise, Kosovo may hold new early parliamentary elections — the fourth in two years.
Agreement on a candidate
According to Balkan Insight, Kurti insists on implementing the agreement with the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo on the candidacy of Bekim Sejdiu, a former Constitutional Court judge and diplomat. However, Sejdiu withdrew his candidacy on September 14 due to disagreements within the Democratic League of Kosovo’s parliamentary group: six of its lawmakers did not agree with the deal.
Kurti, who was re-elected prime minister less than three weeks ago, said that his Self-Determination party considers the political agreement valid and has no other candidate.
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Voting conditions
For a presidential vote to be valid, at least 80 of the parliament’s 120 lawmakers must be present in the chamber. If a candidate does not receive the required support in the first two rounds, a simple majority of votes is sufficient to win in the third round, but the quorum of 80 lawmakers remains in place.
Kosovo has had no president since April 4, when Vjosa Osmani’s five-year term ended. The duties of head of state are currently performed by parliamentary speaker Albulena Haxhiu from Kurti’s party.
Position of another opposition party
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Kosovo demands that parliament first support amendments to the law on the Specialist Chambers, adopted in 2015. The party seeks to limit the jurisdiction of this court after a court in The Hague found four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army guilty of war crimes. Lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Kosovo boycotted the work of parliamentary committees, seeking consideration of these amendments.
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