Baraliu: For the citizens' expression on the removal of the mayors in the north, there is no need for the Referendum Law

For the citizens' expression on the removal of the mayors in the four municipalities in northern Kosovo, there is no need for the Law on Referendum, Mazllum Baraliu, a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Pristina assessed, explaining that an Administrative Instruction had been issued by the Ministry of Local Government for this purpose. As he stated, this instruction enabled citizens to resolve the issue of mayors through the procedure it outlined.

"For this issue, this procedure according to the instruction is sufficient, and it is legal. However, we have a basis for adopting the Referendum Law for all other issues on which citizens may need to express themselves because a referendum is the most direct way and model of democratic expression by citizens on any issue. For example, some countries that are advanced in terms of consolidating democracy, such as Switzerland, consult the public through a referendum on every issue, even of local or municipal character. We don't have that because there hasn't been the political will of the international community that was here for years, helping to establish administration, but there was also no political will of political parties, both former and current, to do something like that," Baraliu said.

He believes that what will follow in the north is a vote according to Article 72 of the Law on Local Self-Government, which provides one of the possible ways to remove the president of any municipality, in this case, the four municipalities in the north.

"Through requests, not petitions or referendums, it is said, requests, with Administrative Instructions. It has been forwarded to the Central Election Commission, where the signatures are checked according to the law and the Administrative Instruction, 20 percent of the electorate, and, of course, there will be a vote, and that vote should be completed with 50 percent plus one vote," Baraliu said.

As he explains, the process of verifying signatures is underway at the CEC because all details of the signatories of the request need to be checked.

"After the vote, the process of declaring the elections begins. The legal deadline is at least 30 days and at most 45 days, and within that period, so-called extraordinary or early elections should be held, and then the vote is cast, and we get what the people choose," Baraliu said.