President Blocks Work on CEC

Civil society in Kosovo is considering that the president is deliberately dragging this process on purpose and that it is violating the Constitution. The presidency institution is awaiting “advisory opinion of the Constitutional Court”, while the latter says the subject will be considered at the next hearings under which the decision on compliance with the Constitution will be made.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has requested the Constitutional Court's opinion concerning the new composition that the Central Election Commission will have. There has been a dilemma by the president regarding the division of CEC members, about how many representatives will have political parties there.

In June, Thaci had decided to appoint the first group of CEC members, until for others he demanded clarification from the constitutional how the division of positions should take place in this institution.

And this presidency said it was being made by “to avoid any dilemma over which parliamentary groups should be appointed members of the CEC”.

“The legal department is awaiting the advisory opinion of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo. The moment you have this decision we will act on that decision”, KosovoPress is said to respond to the presidency.

But the Constitutional Court could not decide on this, nor on any other case, since it was without quorum, since Hashim Thaci had not yet decreed the new judges of the Constitutional Court.

As they say in the Constitution, that was also the reason the subject for the CEC failed to be examined.

This requirement has not yet been reviewed since after its pre-trial, the Constitutional Court has not had the right quorum to examine the subject and decision-making. After the new judges' decree, the Court is now in full composition and has the quorum needed to make decisions. The subject will be considered at the next hearings, and the decision will be made in accordance with the Constitutional Court, the Law for Constitutional Court and the rule of work of Court”, the Constitutional Court's response given to Kosovas said.

After last election results, the coalition turns out PAN should have two, out of four representative members in the CEC, minority communities have four members, while the Democratic League of Kosovo and the Vetevendosje Movement have two representatives, who previously had one.

The issue was complicated here, as it turns out there is a dilemma that should be PAN have two or more members in the CEC, or the opposition, in this case LDK and Vetevendosje.

Rasim Alija from Democracy for Development tells Kosovo that all is a political issue dealing with the power of political subjects in the CEC.

It's also a matter of power and political subjects in their CEC members.. It is seen as a confrontation or part of a political impact on the appointment of members of the Central Election Commission”, he says.

It has been made a year by the certificate of parliamentary election results and legally within 60 days the composition of the CEC must be changed, but last year, immediately in October, the country went to local elections as well, and the president decided to continue the mandate for the composition it was.

The mandate was expired in March of this year and now and how many months the institution is dysfunctional, since Hashim Thaci is awaiting the constitutional response to clear up dilemmas about the CEC's composition.

According to analyst Imer Mushkolaj, the president's request to the constitution has been unnecessary, but that Thaci is doing so in order to postpone the process, because it must give the mandate to two LDK members and two Vetevendosje Movement members, as long as there is the PAN coalition.

I think this is a legal and constitutional violation on the part of the president, and in some form he's trying to hold the Central Election Commission hostage, in this form to influence that whatever decision it takes, in either case it will, just have the majority or pretend to have the majority coalition. PAN, despite the results of the June 11th elections, have put another situation in another photograph, and therefore LDK and Vetevendosje should have two members at the Central Election Commission”, he says.

According to Mushkolaj, the president is trying to make a decision by the Constitutional Court, politically influenced.

Article 139 of the Kosovo Constitution and the General Law for Elections in the Republic of Kosovo clearly define procedures for selecting members of the CEC.

Based on these documents, 60 days after the certificate of election results, with the political parties nominated, Kosovo's president should appoint the new members.

In April of this year, the president extended the mandate to Valdete Daka as chairman of the CEC, but he was stuck to the wide composition of this institution.

But the CEC is called to carry out other tasks besides planning election processes.

This procrastination caused most damage to the CEC itself, given that there is a series of reports that cannot be adopted as such in the Central Election Commission, due to the lack of legitimacy or new members of the Central Election Commission. As long as we have appointed the CEC leader, we don't have the members of the Central Election Commission, which means the CEC is dysfunctional, for now it's dysfunctional. In the event of any other extraordinary or premature election, it would also be very problematic to organise elections and make decisions”, he says.

While according to Imer Mushkolajt, this is not the first time President Thaci is involved in party issues. Thus, according to him, such a CEC blockade is harmful and unnecessary.

The Central Election Commission's <x0). So this bullshit, this block of CEC, I believe it's very harmful and it won't have to happen, but it doesn't seem like the president has enough to lock down an institution” respectively, he says.

We remember that in the last three cycles, the Republic of Kosovo does not follow fair elections, but always extraordinary or premature. Under current conditions, the election body would be problematic.

Such deadlocks also make it difficult to address electoral reform further, in view that the country is beginning activities about addressing the issue of electoral reform.