The continuation of the session for the constitution of the new legislature, which emerged from the parliamentary elections of February 9, will be held on Thursday at 12:00, according to the calendar of the Kosovo Assembly.
The session, interrupted on Tuesday, was supposed to continue within 48 hours of the interruption, and comes after Kosovo’s president, Vjosa Osmani, requested that it continue in accordance with the laws.
Earlier on Wednesday, Osmani said in her response to the chairman of the constitutive session, Avni Dehari, that “…The functionalization of institutions that emerged from the will of citizens is a constitutional obligation of every institution and every person vested with public authority.”
“In this specific case, this is your obligation as the chair of the constitutive session as well as that of all elected deputies in the Ninth Legislature of the Assembly. Consequently, I also remind you that the spirit of the Constitution, the judicial practice of the Constitutional Court and the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of Kosovo, oblige you to continue the constitutive session no later than within forty-eight hours of its interruption,” the letter stated.
Dehari had addressed Osman on Wednesday morning with a request to clarify how to proceed after the adjournment of the constitutive session on Tuesday.
The Kosovo Assembly failed on Tuesday to constitute the composition of the new legislature, which emerged from the parliamentary elections held on February 9.
The elected deputies failed to pass the first item on the agenda, the approval of the report of the Temporary Committee for the Verification of Mandates and Quorum.
Deputies from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the Democratic League of Kosovo, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo voted against the report, saying that the members of the Government, who were elected as deputies, should have officially resigned earlier so that they could be sworn in as deputies of the new parliamentary composition.
Osmani said on Facebook on Wednesday that the Constitutional Court’s rulings have already determined the obligation of all MPs “to implement, not block, the formation of institutions, and to find a way forward for the constitution of the Assembly.”
The leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Lumir Abdixhiku, said he welcomes the president’s response, but reiterated that his party will again ask Kurti and his ministers to formally resign.
A few hours earlier, Kosovo’s acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, said that calls for members of the executive who have been elected as MPs to formally resign from the Government are “reckless” calls that would risk an institutional vacuum.
The Vetëvendosje movement has repeatedly said that the executive has been resigning since the end of its four-year mandate on March 23.
The LVV has accused the PDK, LDK, AAK, and the Serbian List – which abstained – of causing a crisis, putting the state into unfamiliar territory.
The approval of this report would pave the way for moving on to the next item, that of the swearing-in of the deputies, followed by the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers of the Assembly – necessary steps for the constitution of the new parliamentary legislature.
Only after the constitution of the Assembly could steps be taken towards the formation of the new Government of Kosovo.
Vetëvendosje won the February 9 elections with about 42 percent of the vote, or 48 seats out of 120 in the Kosovo Assembly. But it needed at least 61 seats to form a new government.
After LVV, PDK won the most votes, with 24 seats, followed by LDK with 20. MPs from the pre-election coalition between the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) and NISMA also secured mandates.
Of all these opposition parties, only Fatmir Limaj, the leader of Nisma, has not drawn a “red line” for a possible coalition with LVV. REL