PRISTINA: Kosovo’s parliament failed on Saturday for a tenth time to elect a new speaker, deepening a political crisis and increasing the possibility of snap elections.
Three months of deadlock began with February 9 elections in which the prior ruling Vetevendosje (“Self-Determination”) party failed to secure a majority, winning 48 out of 120 seats.
As the largest party, VV proposed Albulena Haxhiu, justice minister in the former government, as speaker.
However, MPs did not even get the chance to vote on this proposal as the VV wanted a secret vote — which the opposition MPs refused.
The opposition accuses VV of deliberately blocking the formation of institutions by not proposing moderate party representatives.
“If they propose Albulen Haxhia for speaker not 10 but 100 hundred times, we will oppose it,” said Memli Krasnici, the chair of the leading opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK).
VV, on the other hand, blames the opposition, accusing them of discriminatory treatment towards Haxhiu.
The assembly has been in session since April 15.
The constitution does not set any deadline but instead states that the session cannot end without the election of the president, three vice-presidents and parliamentary bodies.
The deadlock is “holding up ratification of international agreements under the EU’s Growth Plan. Without ratification, Kosovo is denied access to 882.6 million euros,” the Group for Legal and Political Studies warned.
The next session is scheduled for Monday.
