PRISTINA – Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti said at today’s press conference that there can be no talk of a new parliamentary election, as the Constitutional Court must rule on the cases that have been filed regarding the election of the President of Kosovo.
The Assembly of Kosovo did not vote on the election of a new President yesterday due to the lack of a quorum. Only the ruling coalition was present, which was not enough for a two-third majority required for the first two ballots of voting for the new head of state.
Current President Vjosa Osmani, who was not nominated for another term, today issued a decree to dissolve the parliament and call a new snap parliamentary election, citing that the new President had not been elected before the constitutional deadline of 30 days before the expiry of her term, which is on 4 April.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the Speaker of Parliament, Albulena Haxhiu, announced that a request had been submitted to the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of the process of the election of the President. Haxhiu also said that a temporary measure to suspend the deadlines for this procedure until the ruling was requested.
According to Gazeta Express, Kurti said that dissolution of parliament only occurs when three rounds of voting for the President are completed, and all three fail.
“We are now in a situation where we cannot talk about new elections without talking to the Constitutional Court, since we have disagreements and requests before them… Article 86 states that the Assembly is dissolved if it does not receive 61 votes in the third round. We have not reached that point, the first round was not even completed, let alone the third round,” Kurti said at the conference.
“It follows from this that the dissolution of the Assembly is related to the completion of the voting procedure. Last night we only started with the first round, and we are by no means at the end of the third round,” Kurti said.
Earlier today, Vjosa Osmani held a meeting with the representatives of political parties to determine the date of the new election. The meeting concluded without a final agreement, and Kurti’s party refused to participate.
