While the mandate of the president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, ends on April 4, and the president or the new president must be elected 30 days before the end of this mandate, there are not many movements, at least on the surface, regarding the election of the new head of state.
Osmani, who has expressed interest in re-candidacy, has not yet secured the signatures of 30 deputies to formalize her candidacy. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister and head of Vetëvendosje, Albin Kurti, has not started consultations with other parliamentary parties for the new head of state, as he warned seven days ago.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo told the KosovaPress news agency that they are waiting for Kurti’s invitation for consultations, and confirmed that no official candidacy for president or new president has yet emerged.
“The Democratic Party of Kosovo has made its position clear: for the president, there must be a political agreement, political consensus, dialogue and compromise, which must produce a president or a president who is the personification of the unification of the people of Kosovo. Furthermore, there is no candidacy that came from the political parties that won in the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo. No consultations were held. When the consultations are held, there will also be a position of the PDK on this topic. Undoubtedly. The president has already warned that he participates in every meeting that is called for the president”, said Artan Behrami from PDK.
“Of course, it is up to every parliamentary political subject to be part of the election of the new president or president of Kosovo, but the negotiations are up to the political subjects, as well as opening a topic on how it will be resolved, how the process will be concluded and whether a proposed name will have consensus according to the Constitution and the Rules of the Assembly. It has not been discussed yet whether we will have a candidate. What is known, we have the potential and we have always had the potential to have people who are examples in leadership and leadership, whether for president, prime minister or other positions. There is still no political decision of the Democratic League of Kosovo”, said Armend Zemaj from LDK.
According to the Constitution of Kosovo, the new president must be elected within 30 days before the end of the mandate of the predecessor, which in this case falls on March 5. Three rounds of voting are held for the election of the president: in the first two rounds, the candidate for the head of state must receive a qualified majority of two-thirds, i.e. 80 votes out of 120 deputies in the Assembly; while in the third round, 61 votes are enough.
For the process to be valid, at least 80 deputies must be present in the hall. If the president is not elected, the Assembly is dissolved and the country goes to new parliamentary elections.
