- CEC: We will make budget planning after announcement of elections (Klan Kosova & KTV)
- Isa Mustafa ready for another mandate at LDK helm (RTK)
- Hoxhaj: Non-conclusion of dialogue with Serbia leaves Kosovo in status-quo for long (KTV)
- Assembly has no monitoring report on implementation of laws (KTV)
News
CEC: We will make budget planning after announcement of elections
(Klan Kosova & KTV)
It has been a week since Ramush Haradinaj gave his irrevocable resignation from the Prime Minister’s post and it still has not been decided whether the country will enter extraordinary elections.
Although political parties have unequivocally stated that they want extraordinary elections, the President is expected to begin consultations with political parties only next week.
Only after the decision is made that the country will enter elections, one of the procedures to be followed is to allocate funds to the Central Election Commission for organizing them.
Until now, the Central Election Commission has not made the budget planning that it will need to organize extraordinary elections, but it will do so the moment that elections will be announced.
The 2019 is not an electoral year, thus this year’s budget hasn’t included funds for organization of elections, but the Ministry of Finance has a fund that it can use for this purpose.
Based on the CEC data, the last parliamentary elections held in 2017 had cost 4 million euros.
CEC spokesperson Valmir Elezi told KosovaPress that they will start with intensive preparations for elections only after they will be announced.
In this regard, he says that as the elections have not yet been announced, they have not even made any budget planning.
He added that if there will be elections, the CEC, like at other times, will make a budget request to the Government for funds.
At the last meeting of the government in resignation Finance Minister Bedri Hamza explained that in the ministry he runs there is a fund that can be used for CEC’s needs to organize elections.
Hamza clarified that this fund can be used only when the elections are announced.
As for the opposition parties’ request for the country to enter extraordinary elections, political analyst Imer Mushkolaj says that political parties can do so by dissolving the Assembly.
Mushkolaj says he does not see such a will of political parties despite that in public statements all the political parties have stated they want elections.
In the meantime, Klan Kosova quoted political party representatives as saying that there is no room for concern, since the funds for holding of extraordinary elections can also be allocated by the Assembly.
Isa Mustafa ready for another mandate at LDK helm
(RTK)
On August 3rd, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) will hold party elections.
While this date is drawing near, the current chairman of this party [Isa Mustafa] is preparing for yet another mandate.
Furthermore, he is already ready to take the LDK’s throne, and this is also shown in the latest post of his son Besnik, who published a photo with his father and wrote: “In the mood for next challenges.”
As the Indeksonline portal reported earlier, Mustafa will be the candidate for the LDK leader, since he has the support of most of the branches and senior party members.
These sources have also reported that Mustafa’s candidacy will also be supported by his former “rivals” within the party and this fact makes him a favourite candidate.
Hoxhaj: Non-conclusion of dialogue with Serbia leaves Kosovo in status-quo for long
(KTV)
Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo Enver Hoxhaj expressed his belief that non-conclusion of dialogue with the Serbian side risks Kosovo to remain long in status quo in case there is no agreement in the 2019-2020 calendar year.
In a Facebook post he wrote that conclusion of the dialogue serves interests of Kosovo.
“Dialogue is the most unpopular topic for citizens, but the most strategic for Kosovo. Its conclusion serves, above all, the interests of Kosovo. This was the reason that in 2014 we created a big coalition to close the big issues of state-building. We acted the same in 2017 with strong political figures to end the dialogue as well, but the developments showed that only one government with a powerful and leading PDK can do it,” Hoxhaj wrote.
Assembly has no monitoring report on implementation of laws
(KTV)
The activity and work of the Assembly of Kosovo Members in the first period of this year is considered incomplete and without results.
In case of dissolution, a procedure that may follow the resignation of Prime Minister of Kosovo and the Government’s collapse, this composition of the Assembly, among others, according to experts, would be remembered for the low level of monitoring the implementation of laws.
MPs have been constantly criticized for the lack of engagement and failure to implement the work plans according to the Assembly’s Regulation. International representatives in Kosovo, as well as non-governmental organizations monitoring the work of this institution, have recently stated that not only the laws have been adopted according to the foreseen dynamics, but even those that have been approved, are not being monitored if they are being implemented, or not.
Artan Murati of Kosovo Democratic Institute, the Institute monitoring the Assembly’s work, told Radio Free Europe that the most common reason for missing sessions has to do with the lack of quorum. But, he also underlined, that in the organizational terms, “the Assembly Presidency has failed”.
He said the statements that Kosovo has good laws but that their implementation is not happening, for the institutions and MPs themselves, do not seem to be any concern or problem.
Even Riccardo Serri, Head of the European Political, Economic and Integration Section at the European Union Office in Kosovo, at a meeting with members of the Assembly Committee on European Integration, stated that in the recent months the Kosovo Assembly has had some obstacles in implementing its work and plans.
Kosovo Assembly Member Ilir Deda, who currently operates in the Assembly without a caucus, told Radio Free Europe that inadequate management of the work has made many things within this institution not to function properly.