Kosovo’s Assembly has resumed its plenary session, which began on August 8, with parliamentary parties once again divided over how candidates for deputy speakers should be elected.
Following consultations between the Assembly leadership and parliamentary group leaders, Speaker Albulena Haxhiu announced that, in the absence of an agreement among the parliamentary groups, the candidates would be voted on individually.
However, immediately after the announcement, parliamentary group leaders requested the floor to challenge the proposed procedure.
LVV MP Arbërie Nagavci said that if there was no agreement on the candidates proposed by the political parties, the Assembly should proceed with individual voting.
PDK parliamentary group leader Përparim Gruda then referred to a 2025 Constitutional Court ruling concerning the election of deputy speakers. Haxhiu read the relevant part of the ruling, which states that voting as a package is possible when there is agreement and political will among MPs and parliamentary groups.
Gruda argued that the Assembly should not abandon its previous parliamentary practice of voting on the deputy-speaker candidates as a package. He insisted that consensus was required and therefore called for the candidates to be voted on together.
LDK parliamentary group leader Hykmete Bajrami said her party did not contest the will of MPs to support individual candidates, but argued that the Assembly must follow the required voting procedure. She said LDK would accept individual voting as long as the procedure was respected.
Srpska Lista MP Igor Simić also requested the floor and called for consensus. His intervention suggested that the dispute over the voting method was being used as a political maneuver, while Srpska Lista supported voting on the candidates as a package.
Nagavci then reiterated that LVV was interested in completing the constitution of the Assembly and wanted the candidates proposed by the parliamentary groups to be voted on.
With no agreement reached on package voting, Haxhiu proposed that the Assembly proceed with individual voting.
She then asked the Assembly administration to enable a vote on the proposed voting method.
MPs voted 71 in favor, 10 against and one abstention, approving individual voting for the deputy-speaker candidates.
The Assembly is now expected to proceed with the individual voting process, although the dispute over the procedure once again highlighted the lack of political consensus among the parliamentary groups.
