Gogic: CEC decides on the organization of the vote for the dismissal of the mayors and will not be able to invoke the absence of a referendum law

Political scientist Ognjen Gogic tells Kosovo Online that the decision of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica to reject the request for a referendum on the revocation of the decision on the allocation of land near the Vojni remont site, citing the absence of a referendum law, cannot be reflected in the further process of dismissing the mayor in this, nor in the other three municipalities in northern Kosovo. According to him, the requests for petitions in these two cases were based on different articles of the Law on Local Self-Government. He also points out that the CEC is the body that decides on the continuation of the procedure for the dismissal of the mayors, not the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica or its president.

The petition regarding the land decision, explains Gogic, is based on an article that gives citizens the right to challenge a decision of the Municipal Assembly in a referendum, while the petition for the dismissal of the mayor relates to another article of the law – regarding the dismissal of the mayors.

"In the first situation, the legal way to challenge the decision is to put it to a referendum, and when it comes to the dismissal of the mayors, it is not a referendum, although colloquially referred to as such, but legally it is a voting procedure for the dismissal of the mayors. The Law on Local Self-Government stipulates that citizens should first submit a petition and then vote for the dismissal, and the Administrative Instruction further elaborates and gives the CEC the authority to initiate the procedure for the dismissal of the mayors after verifying the signatures in accordance with the Law on Local Elections. According to the Administrative Instruction, it is expected that the provisions of the Law on Local Elections, which govern the election of mayors, will be applied, but oppositely, that is, for their dismissal," Gogic says.

The implementation of the Administrative Instruction, after the collection of signatures through petitions is completed, he adds, is in the hands of the CEC.

"The CEC is the body that should decide whether the petition is acceptable or not, and the CEC decides whether to proceed further according to the procedure prescribed by the instruction, not the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica or its president, who cannot even express their views on this matter in the media as it encroaches upon the jurisdiction of another body. The CEC is the one that should decide whether the voting for the dismissal of the mayors can now be organized. In this situation, the CEC will not be able to invoke the absence of the referendum law. The President of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica, Uglanin, referred to the absence of the referendum law, but the CEC will not be able to do so because neither the Law on Local Self-Government nor the Administrative Instruction mention that the voting for the dismissal of the mayors is conducted based on the referendum law, so the absence of that law is not a legal gap that limits the CEC," Gogic says.

He notes that the CEC can say that the Law on Local Elections cannot be applied to this situation because it does not provide for voting for dismissal, but the absence of the referendum law, he reiterates, cannot be the reason or the excuse to halt this procedure.

However, Gogic states that the legal framework for the dismissal of mayors is certainly unclear, and the CEC cannot put itself in a situation where it creates legal norms that are a matter of law and will probably refrain from doing so.

"The situation will be similar to that with the decision of the Central Bank of Kosovo, where the responsibility is passed on. Both the CBK and the CEC are considered independent institutions that the executive power cannot directly influence, so we will have a vicious circle, where the Prime Minister or the President of Kosovo will say that they cannot influence the work of the CEC and that the CEC is the one responsible for conducting the procedure for voting for the dismissal of the mayor. However, the CEC will say that there is not enough legal basis to do so without violating some laws," Gogic says.

After the request of the Serbian Democracy, which collected 2,213 signatures as a part of the petition for the revocation of the decision on the allocation of land to the Kosovo Police in the municipality of North Mitrovica, the President of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica, Nexhat Uglanin, stated that this request for a referendum had been rejected because there was no referendum law. He also announced that the same fate awaited the petition for the dismissal of the mayor in North Mitrovica.