Andric Rakic: The absence of a referendum law cannot be a basis for rejecting petitions

Milica Andric Rakic, the NGO Social Initiative program manager, stated that the absence of a referendum law could not justify petition rejections.

"The absence of a referendum law is not something that citizens should bear on their shoulders, institutions should provide them with an alternative way to carry out what they intended, challenge the referendum decision, or suspend the decision, as requested, until conditions for organizing a referendum are met through the adoption of a law. Claiming that citizens' requests were rejected due to the absence of such a law is completely irresponsible. This is not a valid reason for rejection; valid reasons for rejection would be if they didn't submit within the deadline or if there weren't enough signatures as required by the Law on Local Self-Government or, for example, if the Central Election Commission rejected it because it turned out that the verified signatures were not valid, from people who do not live in those municipalities," Andric Rakic said to Kosovo Online.

She emphasized that the reasons she had mentioned could be grounds for rejection, but that the absence of a law was not a valid reason for rejection.

"I find it strange that Uglanin takes responsibility for this by saying that he was the one who rejected the initiative because he potentially could be criminally responsible for obstructing the implementation of laws and constitutionally guaranteed citizen rights. If I were in his place, I would leave it to other institutions. I don't see why he is taking this kind of responsibility and burdening himself because he doesn't have jurisdiction," she said.

The President of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica, Nexhat Uglanin, said yesterday that after rejecting the request for a referendum on the allocation of land to the Kosovo Police, the same fate awaited the petition for the dismissal of the mayor in North Mitrovica and that "not even the Ahtisaari Plan and the Constitution of Kosovo envisage a referendum."

She points out that Uglanin's claim that a referendum is not guaranteed by the Constitution is also incorrect.

"Another thing he mentioned in the media was that a referendum was not guaranteed by the Constitution, which is absolutely untrue. Not only is it guaranteed by the Constitution, but also by the European Charter of Local Self-Government to which Kosovo has committed to respect. It is also one of the basic principles followed by the Council of Europe in various member countries, respecting citizens' rights to participate in decisions of local authorities, so it is certainly guaranteed by legislation in Kosovo, as well as by numerous international documents," Andric Rakic stated.

Meanwhile, a decision is also expected on another petition related to the dismissal of mayors in four municipalities in northern Kosovo, which should also be resolved by referendum according to the instructions.