PDK’s two scenarios for the post of Assembly Speaker (Gazeta Blic)
Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) has prepared two scenarios for the post of Assembly Speaker. Although it is aware it does not have the sufficient votes to take the post of the Speaker, the party will not give up easily and has even decided who to propose for the post, Hajredin Kuci.
Sources from inside the PDK said that when the old Assembly presidency is set to meet on Saturday, PDK will try to prevent the joint parliamentary group consisting of Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Alliance for Future of Kosovo (AAK) and Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA) from being recognized as legitimate. PDK representative in the Assembly presidency, Xhavit Haliti, is expected to dispute the LDK-AAK-NISMA group and will use the interpretation of the Constitutional Court to argue that the term coalition only applies to pre-election ones. PDK also hopes to have the support of the two other members of the presidency from minority community parties.
At the same time, opposition coalition will refer to the practice from the past legislature when the Assembly presidency at the time approved the request for the forming of the 6+ parliamentary group. An official from the opposition told Gazeta Blic that if there is no consensus in the presidency, the matter will be put to vote. The source said that apart from NISMA’s Jakup Krasniqi and LDK’s Ismet Beqiri, Vetevendosje’s Glauk Konjufca will also support the forming of the LDK-AAK-NISMA parliamentary group. “We have at least four votes”, said the source. Assembly Presidency has a total of 6 members representing largest political parties.
PDK sources said that if the first scenario will fail and the LDK-AAK-NISMA parliamentary group is accepted, the chairperson of the first Assembly session, PDK’s Flora Brovina will not abide to the agenda set by the Assembly Presidency and will call on PDK to propose a candidate for Speaker’s post arguing that PDK has won elections and is entitled to the post.
In such a situation, the opposition bloc has two options: either have the head of the LDK-AAK-NISMA parliamentary group hold a speech or immediately boycott the session. If it comes to the boycott, sources say that Vetevendosje MPs would also boycott and leave the Assembly without a quorum to continue its constitutive session.
International sources, on the other hand, hope that the chairperson of the constitutive session, Flora Brovina, will respect the agenda so that the Assembly is not brought to a standstill and paralyse the process of forming new institutions of Kosovo.