Radakovic: Following the Constitution of the Assembly of Kosovo, the president should be elected first

Dušan Radakovic, Executive Director of the non-governmental organisation Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture (ACDC), has said that, following the certification of the election results, the Assembly of Kosovo should first be constituted, then a President of Kosovo elected, and only afterwards should efforts be made to form a new Government of Kosovo.

Speaking to Kosovo Online, Radakovic said that the issue of electing the President was what ultimately led Kosovo to early elections and therefore must be resolved immediately after the Assembly is constituted.

"The Constitutional Court was clear when it explained the procedure and the reasons for the collapse of the previous government, namely the issue of the President. My interpretation, shared by legal experts who follow Kosovo's judiciary, legislation and, above all, constitutional law, is that the Assembly must first be constituted. That is necessary in order to resolve the first and fundamental issue that led to these elections—the election of the President. Based on my reading of the relevant legislation, the Assembly must first be constituted, after which the presidential election should immediately follow in three rounds.

If a President is not elected in any of those three rounds, the Government cannot be formed. The reason these elections were called was that there were not enough members of parliament—80 in total—to elect the President. The sequence is therefore: Assembly, President, and only then a vote on the Government," Radakovic said.

He added that the Constitutional Court had clearly defined the procedure for electing the President: in the first and second rounds, the presidential candidate must receive 80 votes from members of parliament, while in the third round 61 votes are sufficient, provided that at least 80 members of parliament are present in the chamber.

"Lawyers may interpret certain provisions differently, but the Constitutional Court has been very clear, and this procedure has been confirmed on several occasions: the first round, the second round, and, if necessary, the third round. In the third round, 80 members of parliament must be present in the chamber. If there are fewer than 80 members present, or if there are 80 but the candidate fails to secure the minimum of 61 votes, new parliamentary elections are automatically called, and the process is repeated until the conditions for electing a President are met," Radakovic said.