Jakaj: After agreement on presidential candidate, the first step should be to continue the Assembly’s constitutive session

Researcher at the Kosovo Institute of Justice Naim Jakaj said that the first step after the Self-Determination Movement and the Democratic League of Kosovo reach an agreement on a presidential candidate should be to continue the constitutive session of the Assembly, so that the 11th legislature can become functional.

According to him, the chair of the constitutive session, Avni Dehari, should schedule its continuation without delay, while the formation of the government should follow once the Assembly is constituted, Kosova Press reports.

Jakaj points out that, from a constitutional perspective, there must also be a second presidential candidate in order for an extraordinary session to be convened.

“The constitutive session continues whenever the political parties reach an agreement. The Assembly is constituted, and either the government or the president can be elected first, there is no problem with that. The constitutional deadline for electing the government is 15 days after a candidate is nominated, while for the president there must be two candidates and an extraordinary session must be convened to elect the president and complete that process,” he said.

Regarding Bekim Sejdiu’s candidacy, Jakaj was reserved in assessing whether he would be a unifying figure. He said this could only be determined during his term in office.

According to him, it will be important how Sejdiu exercises the president’s constitutional powers, which, Jakaj says, should be monitored continuously. He specifically mentioned the president’s power to return laws to the Assembly in cases where it is determined that they could be contrary to the Constitution.

“Apart from his experience and biography, we cannot comment on this because we do not know to what extent he can be a unifying figure, given that he emerged from an agreement between the Self-Determination Movement and the LDK. It may happen that he performs that duty precisely and in accordance with the Constitution, and we will see how he acts once he receives the mandate. The more than 30 powers he has should be monitored on a daily basis, that is, how he exercises them. One of those powers is returning laws. We need to see whether the Assembly will pass laws that are contrary to the Constitution,” Jakaj added.

However, apart from the candidacy itself, the question of securing the votes needed to elect the president remains open. Under the Constitution, in the first two rounds the president must be elected with 80 votes, while in the third round the president can be elected with 61 votes, but 80 members of parliament must participate in the vote. Jakaj says it must first be seen whether all LDK members of parliament will support the agreement with the Self-Determination Movement and the presidential candidate.

In this situation, according to Jakaj, it remains to be seen whether Self-Determination Movement leader Albin Kurti will ask the LDK for guarantees that it will support the candidate, including a written commitment.

“We need to see exactly what the numbers are. We know that there are members of parliament in the LDK who did not want to join with the Self-Determination Movement. Now we need to see whether they will be part of the LDK presidency’s decision, that is, whether they will support such a candidate or not. We need to see whether Mr. Kurti will ask the LDK for a written commitment that all the signatures and all the votes for this candidate are secured. We should also wait and see whether Kurti will seek votes from other parties as well, so that he does not remain on the threshold of 80 members of the Kosovo Assembly. He previously asked for 85, and we need to see whether he will have that many votes,” Jakaj emphasized.

The Self-Determination Movement and the LDK agreed yesterday on Bekim Sejdiu as their candidate for president of Kosovo. The Kosovo Assembly has not yet been constituted, and the process of constituting the 11th legislature has not been completed.