Baraliu: Constitutional Court decisions resolved everything regarding the constitution of the Assembly

Professor of constitutional law Mazlum Baraliu told Kosovo Online that the Constitutional Court, in recent months during the constitution of the ninth legislature of the Assembly of Kosovo, set out the principles on how the Assembly and political parties should behave when it comes to constituting the parliament, and that nothing remained unresolved—yet the parties and MPs failed to respect the Court’s decisions.

“I believe that everything was resolved and explained in the Constitutional Court’s decisions; however, political parties and MPs from all parties—120 of them—did not respect the Constitutional Court’s decisions. They simply ignored the prescribed deadlines and the rulings. In one of its decisions, the Constitutional Court stated that the Assembly must be constituted within 30 days, and that this is the responsibility not only of the winning party or coalition, but of all political parties and all MPs—and they did not comply,” Baraliu said.

Although the deadlines are defined, he notes that the timeframe for forming institutions after the elections scheduled for 28 December will depend on how prepared the Central Election Commission is—where all political entities are represented—and how agile and efficient it will be this time. It will also depend on whether there will be complaints filed by the parties, and how many, submitted to the Complaints and Appeals Panel or to the courts.

“Political parties complain about everything, and proceedings before the Complaints and Appeals Panel, as well as appeals to the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court, delay the process of forming institutions. This political class tends to ask the Constitutional Court all sorts of questions, even though the Court has stated in one of its decisions that it will not respond to questions that fall outside its competence,” Baraliu notes.