Kosovo Assembly Fails to Convene After Kurti Halts Session
Lawmakers confirmed their mandates and took the oath, then Aljbin Kurti asked for more time to agree on a president. The deadline to seat Kosovo's Assembly expires tomorrow at midnight.
The constitutive session of the Kosovo Assembly, scheduled for 10 a.m. in Pristina, was halted on Wednesday at the request of Aljbin Kurti, leader of the Self-Determination Movement and acting prime minister. Lawmakers of the eleventh convocation had confirmed their mandates and taken the oath before the session broke off, but no Assembly speaker was elected, leaving parliament unconstituted a day before the constitutional deadline runs out.
The deadline set by a ruling of the Constitutional Court in Pristina expires August 7 at midnight. The session was chaired by the oldest lawmaker, Avni Dehari of the Self-Determination Movement, assisted by the youngest lawmaker, Fatime Tac of the Democratic Party of Kosovo Turks. Dehari adjourned the session after Kurti’s address, without setting a date to resume, saying only that it would be announced later.
A Request That Wasn’t on the Agenda
As leader of the party with the most seats, Kurti was expected to nominate a candidate for Assembly speaker. Instead, he asked for more time to negotiate the election of Kosovo’s president, even though that question was not on the agenda of the constitutive session.
A few hours later, at a news conference, he explained why he believes a political agreement must come before the parliament’s leadership is elected.
“Any constituting of the Assembly without an agreement on the question of the president would in practice amount to preparing for its dissolution.”
Kurti also said the process of constituting the Assembly and forming institutions would resume as soon as an agreement on the president is reached. Asked whether he is continuing talks with Ljumir Abdiksiku, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, he said there is interest and willingness on both sides, but that everything would become clear over the coming week.
Opposition Speaks of an Institutional Vacuum
Reactions from opposition lawmakers came right there in the hall. Bedri Hamza of the Democratic Party of Kosovo accused Self-Determination of abusing its position as the strongest party.
“Kosovo continues to live in an institutional vacuum.”
Besnik Tahiri, a lawmaker from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, raised a question aimed at the two months that have passed since the election.
“Didn’t he have 30 days for talks?”
The question rests on arithmetic. Snap parliamentary elections were held on June 7. Self-Determination won 53 seats, the Democratic Party of Kosovo 22, the Democratic League of Kosovo 18, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo seven. A majority in the 120-seat parliament requires 61 votes, and no single list has that number on its own. Self-Determination and the Democratic League of Kosovo have yet to reach an agreement, while the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Alliance have refused to enter talks. We reported on this yesterday too, when the session had only just been scheduled and the two opposition parties had already declined the invitation.
Does a Missed Deadline Mean New Elections?
Legal experts have challenged Kurti’s reading that constituting the Assembly without an agreement would lead to parliament’s dissolution.
Ehat Miftaraj, executive director of the Kosovo Institute of Justice, said the fact that the Assembly is not constituted within 30 days of the certification of election results does not automatically trigger legal consequences and does not mean snap elections become mandatory. By his calculation, the deadline for electing Kosovo’s president would not expire until October 5.
Eugen Cakoli, executive director of the Kosovo Democratic Institute, took a similar position, with a caveat about sequencing.
“Without the constituting process being completed, the procedure for electing a president does not begin at all.”
Under the constitution, the president is elected within 60 days of the Assembly being constituted, and the government is formed within 15 days of the moment the acting president hands over the mandate. Both deadlines, then, are waiting on the same trigger that was postponed today.
The Claim That Kosovo Currently Has No President
The session also raised a question no one had anticipated before it began. Enver Hasani, former president of Kosovo’s Constitutional Court, told Gazeta Ekspres that Aljbuljena Hadziju stopped being acting president the moment lawmakers took their parliamentary oath.
“The Republic of Kosovo currently has no president of the Republic.”
Hasani added that whoever chairs the constitutive session cannot take on that role, and that once the Assembly is constituted, the priority must be electing a head of state, not forming a government.
“The Assembly must proceed to elect a president.”
Hadziju took over as acting president on April 4, after a new president was not elected within the prescribed deadline, which was also the reason for June’s snap elections. If Hasani’s interpretation holds, the halted session did not just delay the parliament’s constituting, it also removed the last functioning position at the top of the institutions.
The next date is known, and close: tomorrow at midnight. What happens the morning after, politicians and lawyers in Pristina do not agree.
