34th attempt to constitute Assembly in Pristina fails

Photo: Tanjug/AP

The constitutive session of the Assembly of the provisional Pristina institutions was interrupted today for the 34th time, as the Self-Determination proposal to elect Assembly president in a secret vote was yet again rejected.

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The Democratic League of Kosovo, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and the Serb List did not propose members for a committee that would oversee this ballot.

51 out of 102 deputies present voted in favor of setting up the committee.

The session will resume on June 21.

The constitutive session began on April 15, based on the results of the elections held on February 9. No party has enough seats to form a government on its own.

The deadlock started on the first day of the session, when the mandates of the deputies could not be confirmed.

This only happened after two failed attempts, after which Self-Determination proposed Albulena Haxhiu as the Assembly president - but she did not receive enough votes either then, or the following five times the session continued.

Self-determination then proposed a secret vote to elect her - but, that proposal continues to be rejected.

In the six attempts to elect her in a public vote, Haxhiu, who needs 61 votes, never received more than 57.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo are asking Self-Determination to propose a different candidate, while the Democratic League of Kosovo has announced that it will not vote for any Self-Determination candidate.

Self-determination has 48 seats, the Democratic Party of Kosovo 24, the Democratic League of Kosovo 20, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and the Nisma initiative eight each, the Serb List nine, the Party for Freedom, Justice and Survival one, while the remaining 10 mandates belong to representatives of other non-majority communities.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)