Prime Minister Albin Kurti warned on Wednesday that Kosovo would be forced to hold “back-to-back” parliamentary elections if parliamentary parties fail to agree on the country’s president, with less than a week left before the constitutional deadline for the issue expires. Kurti, who is also the leader of the ruling Vetevendosje Movement, told reporters that new elections would also cost the country tens of millions of euros in losses.
"If we go to new elections, we will have no choice, since we will have to go to new elections again, and after them we will have to go to new elections again. I do not know how we can have 80 MPs, so it is necessary to come to an agreement," Kurti said after an event for the inauguration of the Cardiology Clinic in Pristina. The President of Kosovo is elected with two-thirds of the votes in the first two rounds of voting, or with 61 votes in the third round, but 80 MPs are needed in the hall for the session to be held.
Therefore, an agreement between parliamentary parties is needed on this issue, given that no party – not even Kurti's ruling party with 57 MPs – has such a large number of MPs in the 120-seat Parliament.
A constitutional deadline for electing a president expires on April 28, and if a president is not elected by then, Kosovo will hold new elections within 45 days. Kurti’s statements come two days after talks between him and the leaders of the two main opposition parties, Bedri Hamza of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which has 22 seats, and Lumir Abdixhiku of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), which holds 15 seats, failed.
During talks in Pristina on Monday, Kurti offered Abdixhiku’s LDK the post of deputy prime minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and three other unspecified ministries. In another offer, Kurti offered the post of speaker of the Kosovo Assembly to the LDK. Both of these offers were rejected by Abdixhiku. Meanwhile, on the same day, after the failure of the agreement with Abdixhiku, PDK leader Bedri Hamza rejected as “frivolous” Kurti’s offer for his party to have the speaker of parliament in a deal with LVV. Abdixhiku said he would not meet with Kurti again, while Hamza called his party’s contribution to the president’s issue “completed.”
It is not clear how Kurti can convince them to return to the negotiating table before the constitutional deadline for electing a new Kosovo president expires. In his comments on Wednesday, Kurti did not explain whether he will contact them again. Meanwhile, after Vjosa Osmani’s term ended earlier this month and the country failed to appoint her replacement, the speaker of the parliament, Albulena Haxhiu, was appointed acting president on April 4.
Haxhiu himself has called on the parties to reach a consensus on the election of the president, stressing that the country should not go to extraordinary elections. Previous attempts to elect a new president for the country failed as neither party seemed willing to make concessions.
The ruling party presented two names for president in a session on March 5: Glauk Konjufca, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, and MP Fatmire Mullhaxha-Kollçaku, but the session was not held due to a lack of quorum, after the opposition left the hall. The next day, former President Vjosa Osmani issued a decree dissolving the Parliament and paving the way for new elections. Osmani himself aimed for a second term, but did not secure the necessary support in this regard.
The decree was overturned by the Constitutional Court after an appeal by the Government. The court said the decree had no legal effect and set April 28 as the deadline for the presidential election./rel
