PRISTINA (KOSOVO) (ITALPRESS) – The political iron arm in Kosovo has arrived on the last day for the election of the new president. The constitutional deadline expires today, 6 October, at midnight: if Parliament fails to elect the head of the state, the Assembly will be dissolved and the country will have to return to the polls for early parliamentary elections, to be held within 45 days. The 60-day expiration dates from August 8, date fixed by the Constitutional Court, and ends today.
The stall is intertwined with another institutional crisis. Albulena Haxhiu, President of the Assembly and current interim president, asked the Constitutional Court to clarify who can exercise presidential powers if Parliament does not elect the new Head of State. The question arises from the expiry of the six-month limit for the exercise of the interim chairmanship by the President of the Assembly. Haxhiu submitted the request to the Court on 5 October, asking in particular how and from those who can be exercised the necessary presidential powers after the end of this period, in the absence of a new president.
It should therefore be distinguished the expiry of the six months of interim from that of the 60 days to elect the president: Haxhiu assumed the interim post after the end of the mandate of Vjosa Osmani and the six-month limit expired on 4 October; the term for the election of the new president, instead, arrives today, 6 October. The Constitution does not expressly clarify what happens when the two terms overlap, hence the appeal to the Court. To further complicate the situation there is an explosion in front of Parliament. Hundreds of protesters, including Uck veterans (the Kosovo Liberation Movement born with the 1990s conflict), call for the approval of amendments to the Kosovo Specialized Chambers Act, the Hague-based court which judges the alleged war crimes committed during the war. The protest was nourished by the recent convictions of four former Uck commanders, including former President Hashim Thaci. Parliament approved the first reading measure yesterday but failed to complete the second passage. And it is precisely this law that has become part of the Presidency’s negotiation.
The Pdk, the main opposition party, has tied its 22 votes for the election of the president to the definitive approval of the changes: among the proposals there are a 15-year roof to the penis, the possibility of serving the sentences in Kosovo and the recourse to the Kosovo Supreme Court. The party of Albin Kurti, while having supported the first reading, insists on the election of the president. The times are also very tight for procedural reasons: between first and second reading of the law are normally expected 72 hours. If an agreement is not reached by midnight, then the failure of the presidential election will open the way to a new parliamentary vote, adding another electoral round to the long institutional crisis of Kosovo.
– Photo Ipa Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
