03 Jul 14
Hashim Thaci’s ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo is convinced it will succeed in forming a new government, but it’s unclear how it will get the votes, with the opposition united against him.

Edona Peci, Nektar Zogiani
BIRN
Pristina

Thanks to Kosovo’s Constitutional Court, Hashim Thaci is assured that he will get the first chance at forming the next government – but the odds of success are stacked against him. The reason is simple: a group of opposition parties representing a majority in the next parliament has vowed to stop him.

Nevertheless, Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, has voiced confidence that it will get the votes.

The PDK “won’t have any problem in forming the new government because we have the necessary votes of the electorate and we will have the votes of MPs in the Kosovo parliament,” said Basri Musmurati, secretary of the PDK.

The PDK won the biggest share of the votes in the June 8 national elections. But its 30 per cent only bought it 37 seats in parliament. Assuming every PDK MP was to vote for Thaci, he would still need another 24 votes to reach the 61 needed to secure a third mandate.

But it’s unclear how he will get those votes. A post-election coalition of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, and Nisma represent 47 votes and have vowed to block Thaci in favor of Ramush Haradinaj. The Vetevendosje Movement, representing 16 votes, has also vowed to block Thaci and is in negotiations to put its weight behind Haradinaj. All told, that’s 63 votes that Thaci probably won’t get.

“Hashim Thaci has few or no options at all to achieve the necessary numbers to establish a new government at this time,” said political analyst Shpend Kursani.

“This is because the opposition bloc is solid in its stand to not cooperate with Thaci,” he added.

But Kursani said this might change if Vetevendosje does not back the opposition bloc, which could lead it to fall apart, potentially bringing votes to Thaci.

So for Thaci to prevail he needs to persuade one or more of the parties to join his camp - or convince individual MPs to vote for him instead.

He also would also probably need votes from at least some of the 20 MPs from minority parties which have backed him in the past.

But the biggest bloc, the Belgrade-backed “Srpska” List, is so far refusing to back any PM candidate with its nine votes.

“Srpska does not want to choose who will be first in the Albanian community in Kosovo. That should be decided by the Albanian majority. We will work with those who will be picked by the Albanian majority,” said Branimir Stojanovic, mayor of Gracanica and one of the leaders of Srpska List.

But before the political process can move forward, the Central Election Commission has to certify results. Once certified, President Atifete Jahjaga can nominate a candidate for Prime Minister.

Based on Tuesday’s Constitutional Court decision, Jahjaga will have to nominate the candidate proposed by the PDK, who presumably will be Thaci.

Should Thaci fail to form a government, the president can nominate whomever she wants other than Thaci. The court, however, suggested the president should nominate the person who stands the best chance of forming a government. Should the opposition bloc hold - and it secures Vetevendosje’s backing - it would presumably be Haradinaj.

Jahjaga had asked for the court’s opinion in June because both the PDK and the opposition bloc were insisting that they had the right to form the next government.

The PDK argued it should get the nod because it had the most votes. The opposition bloc, however, said it should get to form the government because it would be able to win a majority in parliament.