Jevtic: Kosovo heading for new elections before year's end
Nine days before the constitutive session in Pristina, the deputy leader of Srpska Lista sees no sign of a way out of the deadlock and warns of a third election in 18 months.
- The constitutive session of the assembly in Pristina is set for August 6 at 10 a.m., one day before the constitutional deadline expires.
- Dalibor Jevtic of Srpska Lista expects Kosovo to head for new elections before the end of the year and says there are no positive signals.
- Self-Determination holds 53 of 120 seats, while 61 votes are needed to elect a government.
- The Serb community is guaranteed ten seats, nine of which went to Srpska Lista.
Dalibor Jevtic, deputy leader of Srpska Lista, said on July 28 in remarks to Radio Television of Serbia that it appears to him Kosovo is heading for new elections before the end of the year. The assessment comes nine days before the constitutive session of the assembly in Pristina, scheduled for August 6 at 10 a.m.
Jevtic said there are currently no positive signals that the situation will change at the institutional level. In his reading, a prolonged deadlock suits the incumbent prime minister. “And that is a message that the political crisis will continue, because crisis is something (Prime Minister) Albin Kurti is best at,” Jevtic said.
Why is August 6 the final deadline?
The session was called by acting president Albulena Haxhiu, set for one day before the constitutional deadline of August 7. The results of the snap elections were certified on July 8, which started the 30-day clock for the new assembly to be constituted.
Haxhiu said she did not convene the session in haste but used the full period the constitution allows, in order to give the parties room for dialogue on electing a speaker. The constitutional court in Pristina has previously held that the entire procedure, meaning verification of mandates, the swearing-in and the election of the leadership, must be completed within that window for the assembly to be validly constituted. On this point the constitutional text leaves little room for interpretation: a deadline is a deadline.
The trigger for the snap election cycle was the same kind of impasse. The previous assembly failed to elect a speaker within the period set by the constitutional court, and elections were called for June 7.
Arithmetic that produces no majority
Albin Kurti’s Self-Determination won 47.13 percent of the vote and 53 seats in the June election. The Democratic Party of Kosovo took 19.44 percent and 22 seats, while the Democratic League of Kosovo took 16.69 percent and 18 seats.
The assembly has 120 seats. One hundred go to Albanian parties, ten are guaranteed to the Serb community and ten to representatives of other minority communities. Of those ten Serb seats, Srpska Lista won nine.
Electing a government requires 61 votes, leaving Kurti eight short. Electing a president requires a qualified majority of 80 votes in the first two rounds, and a president must be chosen within 60 days of the assembly being constituted. Neither threshold is reachable without a coalition deal with one of the parties that campaigned against the incumbent prime minister, and the leaderships of the PDK and the LDK have so far shown no appetite for such an arrangement.
That is the calculation behind Jevtic’s remarks. If August 6 passes without an elected assembly leadership, the only remaining exit is another election cycle, the third in 18 months. For the Serb community in the north and in the enclaves, that means another extended pause in the work of institutions that govern everyday matters, from documents to budget transfers.
The political calendar has narrowed to a single date. Will August 6 produce a constituted assembly, or the start of another campaign?
