51st time is no charm: Yet another attempt to constitute Kosovo Assembly fails

Pristina; Photo: Shutterstock

The constitutive session of the Kosovo Assembly of the  provisional institutions of Pristina was suspended today for the 51st time, with chairman Avni Dehari declaring the conditions were not there to continue.

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As reported by the Pristina media, Dehari decided to suspend the session after a verbal clash with Democratic Party of Kosovo deputy Ganimete Musliu.

The session is now scheduled to continue on Friday, July 25.

Dehari today asked parties represented in the Assembly to propose members for a secret ballot commission (supposed to elect Assembly president) and warned the deputies that discussion is not allowed and that they only have the right to propose names.

Deputy Musliu then stood up to speak, which prompted Dehari to turn off her microphone. Next, she approached him and started a discussion, and after this verbal altercation, Dehari suspended the session.

The constitutive session began three months ago, on April 15, and initially, the reason for what has turned into many dozens of suspensions was the inability to confirm the mandates of deputies (elected in February), and then the Self-Determination candidate for Assembly president Albulena Haxhiu failed to garner enough votes six times in a row.

Since the beginning of May, the Assembly session kept getting suspended because of the Self-Determination's idea to fix that situation by electing the Assembly president in a secret vote, continues to be rejected.

The so-called constitutional court of Kosovo issued a judgement on June 26 according to which the deputies are under obligation to conclude the constitutive session within 30 days at the latest, by electing the Assembly president and their deputy.

The provisional Pristina institutions president, Vjosa Osmani, yesterday asked the said court to clarify what legal consequences there may be, if its ruling is not complied with.

Based on the results of the elections held on February 9, no party has enough mandates to form a government on its own.

The 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)