Elections in the north '%Ska law for referendum, heads can only be downloaded by petition

Recognisors of political processes in the country are praising that the Law for Local Self-government envisions the possibility of holding extraordinary elections, in this case in northern municipalities.

According to them, the law envisions the possibility that at least 20 per cent of voters through a petition organisation may require the removal of the mayors, reports Online Economics.

They have said that the Central Election Commission (KQZ) cannot establish regulations for the classical referendum, since there is no law for the same one which has been voted in the Kosovo Assembly.

But they say the CEC can draft regulations to clarify rules on how the petition can be maintained based on the Law on Local Self-government.

University Professor Mazbul Baraliu told the Online Economy that the Constitution envisions the possibility of holding the referendum, but according to him, the Constitution says to realize this right there must be a law that must be passed in the Assembly.

“No can not be seen in the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo as the possibility of holding the referendum and implementing the right of citizens' referendum, which is the most democratic, more direct and masovic form of civic decision making. But the Constitution says that to realise this right, citizens of the Republic of Kosovo need the Republic Assembly to issue a law on the referendum. This has not happened yet and without the law for referendum there can be no regulation for referendum”, he said.

According to the professor, following the requirements of the EU and the US that elections in the country's north should be held, they can be organised on the basis of the Law on Local Self-rule, which envisions that at least 20 per cent of voters may decide on a petition requiring the resignation of mayors.

The “what you're saying may be the Central Election Commission's decision to implement a different form that envisions the Law for Local Elections as the possibility of making extraordinary elections in a municipality or more”.

The “in addition to the resignation they may give or the dismissal of the mayors, if this does not work out the law and provides an opportunity for at least 20 per cent of voters, in this case of those four municipalities there, if they make a petition which they address to the mayors of the respective municipalities, then they decide on that petition and there should be 50 per cent of citizens adopting that requirement and the early and extraordinary elections can be realised in those four municipalities”, he said.

He said this approach requires more time, but according to him, the CEC needs to have a regulation that regulates this issue in detail, as there has been no chance to act on this law so far.

It's a more indirect approach that simply requires more time and therefore the CEC requires that there be a regulation that will fix this issue by which there has been no case until now in detail. It's kind of a citizen statement through petition. We should have a referendum law without having that law for referendum, the referendum cannot have in Kosovo. At the same time for these elections, one of the modes of repeat elections as Brussels and Washington have requested if our government, to stabilise the situation in the north, must be that if the mayors of these municipalities fail to resign, then this model, a petition petition request addressed by the respective mayor of the municipality”, could be applied.

Gzim Shala, a researcher at the Kosovo Institute for Justice, said the Law on Local Self-rule defines holding elections in two forms, where one of them also nominated as a referendum but not a classic referendum.

According to him, for a <x0referenm” such as this law to be implemented, the CEC is also required to adopt a regulation in order to determine how these two provisions can be implemented in practice.

The law for local self-government determines two forms if we can call it a referendum, one of them names just that. The first case is for municipal Convention regulations that could call for a referendum on a regulation adopted by the Municipal Assembly”.

The law on local self-government, on the other hand, has also defined rules involving the removal of mayors of municipalities that are initiated by 20 per cent of registered voters and then to evacuate the mayor is required at least half of registered voters. In the sense of these two provisions to implement a referendum is also required to adopt a Central Election Commission regulation so as to determine how these two provisions are practically realised”, he said.

Shala, which is based on laws and constitutions, said the CEC cannot draft regulations for her. According to him, the CEC is wise to adopt a regulation for the way two provisions of the Law are implemented for local self-government.

“Well then if we talk about the rest of the referendum on laws for different constitutional aspects and others, this cannot be done on the part of the CEC for the fact that we don't have a referendum law and therefore does not know exactly what it thought. CEC to include you in this” regulation.

It is well if a regulation for the manner of implementing these two provisions of the law on local self-government is adopted, but one cannot be issued on other issues involving laws with the Constitution and the other, because a referendum law is still lacking in Kosovo. If he reiterated that the law on local self-government also recognises the referendum in terms of the Municipal Assembly regulations, and it would be good for the regulation to be issued that will clarify the rules of how this is done, but not a classical referendum”, he said.

At the last meeting, the Central Election Commission has discussed the announcement that the CEC Secretariat is in the process of drafting the regulation for referenda. Where there were reactions from CEC members, they stressed the fact that such a regulation cannot be drafted by the CEC until the Kosovo Assembly has not adopted the Law on Refugees.

But CEC Chairman Kreshnik Radoniqi explained at that meeting that the appointment “referend” is wrong, but the goal is different. According to him, during the process of harmonising new election regulations, an electoral regulation for the responsibilities of the CEC that emerges from the Law for Local Self-Government should be drafted.