Hadziju Wins Pristina Assembly Speaker Vote
Aljbuljena Hadziju was elected Kosovo assembly speaker with 62 votes, and the vote for deputy speakers stalled after she demanded a constitutional review of Serb List's Slavko Simic.
The assembly of Kosovo’s provisional institutions in Pristina elected Aljbuljena Hadziju as parliament speaker today, with 62 votes in favor, 16 against and 13 abstentions. The vote is a first step toward constituting the country’s top legislative body after more than a month of institutional deadlock. Moments after the speaker’s election was announced, proceedings stalled: the newly elected speaker halted the process of electing deputy speakers and asked the assembly administration to check whether the Serb List’s nomination of Slavko Simic complies with the constitution.
The session had been scheduled for 11 a.m. but, according to Kosovo Online, started about half an hour late. Presiding as the oldest lawmaker, Avni Dehari confirmed a quorum and invited Self Determination Movement lawmaker Gljauk Konjufca to nominate a candidate for speaker. Konjufca put forward Hadziju, who had chaired the assembly in the previous term and had been acting head of Pristina’s provisional institutions pending the election of new leadership.
Sources disagree on how many lawmakers were in the chamber. Tanjug put attendance at 102, Kosovo Online at 103, while Radio Kosovska Mitrovica counted 91. Unlike the other two figures, the last one matches the sum of the votes announced (62 plus 16 plus 13), making it the only number the vote tally itself independently confirms.
The constitutional deadline for constituting the assembly expired on August 7. A first attempt to elect leadership on August 6 produced no result, and a session resumed on August 8 was cut short after acting Prime Minister and Self Determination leader Aljbin Kurti asked for more time to put forward a candidate for speaker. On September 4, Dehari announced that the constitutive session would resume today, after Self Determination and the Democratic League of Kosovo (DSK) had reached an agreement to move the process forward. Ahead of the session, the Srpske vesti portal reported that six DSK lawmakers opposed the deal on the presidential candidacy.
After the speaker was elected, the assembly moved to nominating candidates for the five deputy speaker posts. Self Determination proposed Ardijan Golaj, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) proposed Vljora Citaku, and the DSK proposed Kujtim Salja. Emilija Redzepi was nominated on behalf of the smaller non-Serb minority communities. The Serb List put forward a candidate for the deputy speaker seat reserved for the Serb community.
“On behalf of the Serb people, with the signatures of a majority of lawmakers… we are proposing Mr. Slavko Simic as a candidate for deputy speaker of the assembly,” Serb List parliamentary group leader Igor Simic told the assembly.
After parties failed to agree on the voting procedure for deputy speakers, Hadziju called a 30 minute break for consultations with the heads of parliamentary groups and asked for a constitutional review of the Serb List’s nomination. The recess, according to Kosovo Online, ran longer than announced, lasting nearly an hour and a half. When the session resumed, Hadziju said Simic had made a statement while presenting the nomination that she considered unacceptable and asked him to retract it; when he did not, she withdrew his right to speak and adjourned the session, announcing it would continue on Friday at 11 a.m.
Outside the chamber, the session was boycotted by the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK). The party’s leader, Ardijan Djini, explained the reasons ahead of the sitting.
“The assembly could be constituted today, but if that is done without respecting the procedure that the Alliance considers constitutional, the entire process could be challenged before the Constitutional Court,” Djini said.
Constituting the assembly’s leadership is, according to the order announced by the presiding officer and the leading parties, only the first step. Next comes the election of deputy speakers, followed by the formation of a new government and the election of Kosovo’s president. For that post, Kurti and DSK leader Ljumir Abdidziku agreed on August 31 on the candidacy of Bekim Sejdiu, a former diplomat and Constitutional Court member, but the backing of the six DSK lawmakers still has not materialized, leaving open whether that candidacy will secure the necessary majority in the assembly.
Kosovo held parliamentary elections on February 9, and the session now electing the assembly’s leadership continues a constitutive sitting that remained unfinished for more than seven months amid disagreement between the parties. Whether Friday brings an agreement on the voting procedure for deputy speakers, and whether the Serb List’s nomination survives the constitutional review Hadziju requested, will depend on how the session, set to resume at 11 a.m., unfolds.
