Rapajic: Constitutional Court to rule on the Serb List appeal after the Assembly’s dissolution

The program director of the NGO Center for Advocacy of Democratic Culture from North Mitrovica, Aleksandar Rapajic, believes that the Constitutional Court will issue a ruling on the Serb List’s appeal regarding the election of Nenad Rasic as Deputy Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly after the parliament is dissolved, as expected, followed by the calling of new elections.

“I think the Constitutional Court will respond only after the Assembly is dissolved, and then that decision will not have much impact on the decisions of this Assembly since it will no longer exist. However, it will serve as a ruling that will bind future Assemblies on how to act in such cases. I believe the Court’s decision should be that the Deputy Speaker representing the Serb community must be elected by the majority of representatives from the Serb community, not merely that his ethnicity is Serbian, regardless of whether he has majority support within the Serb community or not,” Rapajic told Kosovo Online.

He added that the Constitutional Court has no set deadline within which it must respond to an urgent appeal.

When asked what would happen with the decisions made by current MPs, including a possible one on next year’s budget, if the Constitutional Court invalidates Rasic’s election, Rapajic said he does not believe the budget proposal will reach the agenda.

“I believe the budget will not reach the Assembly, but if this Assembly were to adopt it, the bigger problem would be that several legal norms and the Constitution would be violated, since members of the Government are simultaneously part of both the executive and legislative branches. That would mean the same people would vote on the budget in the Government and then again in the Assembly, which constitutes interference between the executive and legislative powers – something that should not happen. I believe the Constitutional Court will take a practical approach and, if the Assembly is dissolved, allow the process to unfold naturally,” Rapajic explained.

To recall, on October 16, Serb List Presidency member Igor Simic filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court on behalf of ten MPs regarding the election of Nenad Rasic as Deputy Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly, stating that the election was illegal and that the Deputy Speaker representing the Serb community was imposed by the regime of Albin Kurti.