Rapajic: If Self-Determination wants Kosovo's president to be elected, it will put forward a non-political figure

Aleksandar Rapajic, Program Director of the NGO Center for the Advocacy of Democratic Culture in North Mitrovica, believes that if the Self-Determination Movement wants Kosovo's president to be elected, it will nominate a non-political figure, such as a professor or academic, as a candidate acceptable to other parties. If its proposal is a political figure, he believes the opposition will not vote for that person.

Rapajic says that after the Assembly is constituted, and before a government is formed, a vote must be held on the election of the president.

"Until the presidential election process is completed, a government cannot be voted in. I also think it is very clear that a president cannot be elected without Self-Determination. The presence of 80 MPs in the chamber is required for the election to take place, so Self-Determination is certainly in a position to decide whether there will be a presidential election or not, and it can block the entire process," Rapajic told Kosovo Online.

As he adds, repeatedly holding elections produces no results. The only question is whether Self-Determination wants a president to be elected or not.

Although there has been much discussion about a coalition between Self-Determination and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), in his view that is no longer possible.

"The LDK's results do not really help them in the sense of giving them momentum or making them important enough to have a decisive say in the presidential election," our interlocutor believes.

Rapajic says that international actors have been pressuring Pristina for some time to form institutions and avoid new elections, but that it is obvious that the current situation suits Self-Determination.

"They are effectively in power, but they have no responsibility because the institutions do not exist. And here we are, nearly two years into a situation where Albin Kurti's government is effectively governing, but whenever it is expected to do something, it says: 'We are a caretaker government and cannot do anything,'" he said.