The Constitutional Court of Kosovo has ruled that the proposal for the Serb Deputy Speaker of the Assembly must be made in writing by the majority of deputies representing the Serb community and must then be approved by at least 61 votes in the Assembly.
In paragraph 127 of the ruling, the Court stated:
“Based on paragraph 4 of Article 67 [Election of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers] of the Constitution and subparagraph 1 of paragraph 6 of Article 12 [Election of the Deputy Speakers] of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly from the Serb community (i) shall be elected by a majority of all deputies of the Assembly, that is, 61 votes in favor; and (ii) the proposal shall be submitted in writing (iii) by the majority of deputies from the Serb community.”
The Court emphasized that the nomination process for the Deputy Speaker from non-majority communities, in this case the Serb community, must come from the majority or largest number of Serb deputies in the Assembly.
The case stems from a complaint filed by Lista Srpska, which holds nine parliamentary seats, arguing that the non-approval of the two minority Deputy Speakers in a joint vote violated the Constitution. Lista Srpska had proposed Slavko Simić for the position, but he failed to receive the required support.
Another Serb MP, Nenad Rašić, who is not affiliated with Lista Srpska, also sought the position but was not elected after three rounds of voting.
