22 Aug 14
An extraordinary general election may be on the cards after the Constitutional Court annulled the election of an opposition speaker.
Pristina
Kosovo may have to hold fresh elections – three months after the last ones – after Constitutional Court on Friday suspended the election of an opposition speaker.
The court said Isa Mustafa’s 17 July nomination was “unconstitutional because it was not the largest parliamentary group that nominated the speaker,” the court said.
The ruling comes a day after the two major political blocs presented opposing arguments on who had the right to nominate the speaker at the constituent session of the new parliament on 17 July.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, disputed the election of Mustafa because, following the general election, it remained the largest single party in parliament with 37 seats.
On the other hand, a bloc comprising the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and the Initiative for Kosovo, NISMA, claimed the right to name Mustafa because together they had 47 deputies.
While the PDK was celebrating an undoubted triumph, it remains uncertain whether the party can now muster the 61 votes needed to elect a speaker.
Riza Smaka, a constitutional law expert, told Balkan Insight earlier that “if the court decides that only the PDK has the right to nominate a candidate, and if it does not get enough votes [in parliament], the country will go to new elections”.
The parties of the opposition bloc have made it clear they will not vote for a PDK nominee as speaker.
The bloc has also said it will run as a coalition if the country goes to new elections.
The election of a speaker is a matter of urgency, as only then can the Assembly proceed with the election of a new government.
Presenting its case to the court on Thursday, the PDK said the opposition bloc was not a legitimate caucus because it was formed after the general election, at the constituent session of the new parliament.
Arsim Bajrami, of the PDK, told the hearing that the constituent session of parliament, where the bloc was established, was of a technical and ceremonial nature; the establishment of parliamentary group should have been left to another session.
On the other hand, the bloc argued that a parliamentary group could be established with six or more deputies, as long as they informed the assembly presidency.
