Rapajic: Scheduling Assembly session just before the deadline indicates there is no agreement on the president

Aleksandar Rapajic, Program Director of the NGO Center for the Advocacy of Democratic Culture in North Mitrovica, told Kosovo Online that the fact the constitutive session of the Assembly of Kosovo was postponed until the very last moment suggests there is probably still no agreement on the election of the President of Kosovo and that no deal has been reached among political parties in Pristina.

Although some party meetings have taken place, Rapajic believes no agreement has been reached, as formal negotiations have not resumed, which is why the parliamentary session has been scheduled for the penultimate day before the deadline for constituting the Assembly expires.

"I believe the power lies with Vetevendosje. If Vetevendosje wants to form the institutions, it will do so. If it does not, it will delay the process for as long as possible. If they nominate a candidate from academia or from other circles not directly affiliated with Vetevendosje, there is a possibility that the Assembly Speaker will be elected. The opposition parties have said they will not support a candidate from Vetevendosje because that would mean Vetevendosje controls all levers of power in Kosovo, which the opposition is unwilling to accept," Rapajic said.

Once the Assembly is constituted, he points out, Kosovo will enter territory that is not regulated either by the Constitution or by law, as the legal framework provides for repeat elections if a president is not elected, but does not specify what happens after those repeat elections.

"Logically, once the Assembly is constituted, the next step should be the election of the president, because the Assembly was dissolved precisely because it failed to elect one. Therefore, it would be logical for the first issue before the new Assembly to be the one the previous legislature failed to resolve. However, given that there is a legal vacuum, anything is possible, including the possibility of forming a government before electing the president or postponing the presidential election for some time. There is even a possibility that the acting Speaker of the Assembly could, at some point, request an opinion from the Constitutional Court on how the procedure should continue, which would further delay the formation of institutions and prolong the legal vacuum in which we have been living for quite some time," Rapajic said.