The Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV) has reacted to the Constitutional Court’s recent decision, claiming that three key issues regarding the Assembly’s constitutive session have been definitively clarified.
According to Kosovo’s largest party, the ruling makes it clear that all deputies are obligated to constitute the Assembly, not just the largest party. It also states that the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers are on equal footing, and that secret voting does not constitute a violation of the Constitution.
Key Clarifications by the Constitutional Court, According to LVV
In its first point, LVV stated that the Constitutional Court has affirmed on several occasions that the obligation to constitute the Assembly rests on all parties, not solely the winning one.
Regarding the “equal footing” for electing the Speaker and Deputy Speakers, LVV stated that the court rejected the opposition’s stance that their nominees for deputy speakers would be non-negotiable. “The Court has definitively rejected this contradictory position, putting an equal sign between the two issues, i.e., that of electing the Speaker and that of electing the Deputy Speakers,” LVV’s statement reads. The judgment emphasizes multiple times that both actions are necessary for the Assembly’s constitution and that proper consensus must be reached for both.
“Therefore, each party must exercise its constitutional right to propose its candidates for the respective positions (Speaker and Deputy Speakers) and, then, for all of them to be voted on. Otherwise, all parties’ proposals for the respective positions must be negotiable, not just the first party’s proposal for Speaker. Therefore, we, as the Vetëvendosje Movement!, have insisted on the principled position that political entities should nominate their own candidates for the respective positions,” the reaction added.
In its third point, LVV stated that the Constitutional Court has given a green light to the proposal for secret voting for the Speaker’s election. “The opposition had hoped that the Constitutional Court would declare the proposal for secret voting unconstitutional. Now that the Constitutional Court has given the green light to this proposal, regarding its constitutionality, even opposition parties must retract their refusal to participate in secret voting, if this refusal was for constitutional reasons and not from fear of losing.”
