21 Jul 14
With the election of a new speaker now before the courts, the President has had to delay the nomination of a new Prime Minister-designate.
Pristina
Following last week’s dramatic scenes in parliament over the vote for a new speaker, the President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, has put back her plans to nominate a Prime Minister-designate.
The President had previously announced that she would nominate a candidate for Prime Minister after the first session of parliament on July 17.
Arber Vllahiu, a media advisor to the President, told BIRN that she was waiting for matters to clarify.
His comment comes after the outgoing Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, filed a complaint to the highest court in Kosovo questioning the election of Isa Mustafa, head of the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, as speaker.
The PDK asked the court to clarify procedural irregularities that allegedly occurred during the vote for Mustafa.
“There were several violations of procedures, for which we have evidence,” Xhavit Haliti, from the PDK, said on Friday.
Mustafa took office last week in a dramatic session marred by confusion over procedures and by bitter disagreements between the parties over the right to propose a candidate for speaker.
Thaci’s PDK denied the right of the recent established parliamentary group, comprised of Haradinaj’s Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, Mustafa’s LDK and Fatmir Limaj’s Nisma for Kosovo – which has a total of 47 seats – to propose a speaker.
According to regulations, the largest parliamentary group has the right to propose a candidate for the post of speaker.
But the PDK disputed the existence of the AAK-LDK-Nisma bloc and insisted that it was the largest parliamentary group, with 37 MPs.
It remains unclear when – or even if – the Constitutional Court will be able to resolve the issue, paving the way for Jahjaga to nominate a candidate for Prime minister.
Last month, the President herself asked the court for advice amid uncertainties over who had the right to form the new government.
While outgoing Prime Minister Thaci still expects to be nominated by the President, the opposition bloc AAK-LDK and Nisma hopes it will be given a chance to vote for Haradinaj as Prime Minister if Thaci fails to get 61 out of 120 votes that he needs to form a government.
