After the Central Election Commission certified the final results of the snap parliamentary elections, the political scene has entered the phase of the first moves toward forming new institutions. Attention is now focused on negotiations between the parties and the possibility of building a governing agreement.
In circumstances where every vote and every partnership could carry significant weight, it remains unclear how far compromises between political parties will go and whether there will be an agreement or a continuation of the political deadlock. It also remains uncertain which party could more easily cooperate with the Vetëvendosje Movement and under what conditions this cooperation could be built.
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Speaking to “Bota sot” on this issue, political analyst Gani Qarri said that now that contacts between the parties have begun, he hopes a political agreement will be reached.
According to him, if that does not happen, citizens may be forced to return once again to the ballot boxes for new elections.
“The Central Election Commission (CEC), about a month after they were held, has certified the results of the snap parliamentary elections, but whether they have truly brought a solution as well depends on the political parties, something that is expected to be seen soon, since talks have already begun and, this time, they should finally result in an agreement, whether for coalition governance or at least for the election of a consensual president.
Otherwise, if no agreement is reached again and citizens are once more forced to turn to the ballot boxes, each political entity and every local political leader, before deciding on repeating the elections, must thoroughly justify their actions and clearly explain to citizens what will happen after the next elections. Otherwise, citizens may massively boycott the elections and no longer respond to politicians’ calls to participate in voting,” he said.
Commenting on the position of the LDK, Qarri stressed that, in his assessment, the party should not make Vjosa Osmani’s candidacy for president a condition for LVV, as such an approach could trigger reactions from other parties.
“On the other hand, the LDK should also not come out with the condition that Vjosa Osmani must necessarily be a candidate for president of the country, because this causes reactions from other parties and brings about a repositioning of the entire political spectrum in the country, an act which could provoke opposition from some quarters. Given that the PDK, even after the previous elections, was against Mrs. Osmani’s candidacy, while the AAK, or at least Ramush Haradinaj personally, has also put himself forward for the post of president, not to mention its problems with LVV, based on the above-mentioned reasons, if not all, then at least two or three parties may come out against Vjosa Osmani’s candidacy, which also jeopardizes reaching an agreement.”
He further spoke about the situation awaiting the country, underlining that the two largest opposition parties are going through internal difficulties.
In particular, he focused on the LDK and the opposition to its chairman. According to him, these internal divisions could also affect the presidential voting process if an eventual agreement is reached with LVV.
“However efforts currently under way to reach a possible inter-party agreement on the election of the president may vary, what is known is the fact that both main opposition parties continue to face internal problems. In fact, the current chairman of the LDK, while it is said that more than 150 signatures have been collected for holding the Assembly and their number continues to grow, may in a short time no longer be the valid person to negotiate on behalf of the LDK. Therefore, even if Abdixhiku is not completely removed from the position of chairman, not all of the party’s MPs may obey him in the vote for president or, even worse, with the deepening of disagreements, separate factions may also be created and the party may split permanently, which makes any agreement that may be reached between LVV and LDK even more uncertain, which, unfortunately, at the moment truly finds itself in complete agony.
It is surprising that the momentum of the problems raised within the LDK erupted precisely at the time when its current chairman declared himself ready to reach an inter-party agreement with LVV, so as not to send the country once again to new elections, which again may not bring a solution and may even further complicate the political situation in the country. For this reason, there is also suspicion that the problem currently appearing in the LDK did not come only as a result of dissatisfaction with the results of the June 7 national elections, but it seems as though there are forces within this party that have chosen this sudden way of acting precisely as a form of obstructing the possible coalition of joint governance between the LDK and LVV, as well as the resolution of the issue of electing the country’s president,” he explained.
According to Qarri, judging by current developments, negotiations between the parties are not expected to be easy at all. He also left open the possibility that the country could once again face political deadlock.
The analyst also stopped on the contacts between LVV and PDK, stressing that these talks should not end without a political agreement.
“Considering that even at these decisive moments the situation is not at all simple and it is well known that the process of electing the president once again has strong blocking potential, which, besides producing new political challenges, could again lead to the return of political stalemates and the repetition of snap elections, the prime minister and the winning party should now focus more than last time on talks with the PDK, because the country has been delayed too much and Kosovo no longer has time to lose, nor the luxury of going once again to snap elections.
And, if Bedri Hamza’s conditions are not against the interests of the country and do not present obstacles to the normal functioning of the Government and state institutions, the talks should not end without an agreement, but the necessary compromises should be made for the sake of Kosovo and getting the country out of its current unenviable political and institutional situation, from which no one benefits and we all lose. Therefore, this is the decisive moment for the three main parties to enter talks to find a solution and not to produce justifications, with the perfidious aim that the country should once again be forced to go to elections, while the fictitious participation of party leaders in meetings with the prime minister is misused, as last time, to shift blame to the other side for the failure to reach an agreement.”
In conclusion, Qarri also mentioned the risk posed by another political deadlock and publicly appealed for the parties, at least this time, to agree on the election of a consensual president.
He also added that the country’s president should be elected by the people, through the necessary constitutional changes.
“Knowing that this is not the first legislature that could once again bring the Assembly to the brink of dissolution, or even self-dissolution, precisely because of disagreements over the election of the president, if no agreement is reached and political parties are once again left room for Assembly sessions to fail one after another, ‘for lack of quorum,’ while the sides deliberately return to the now familiar claims of blaming one another for imposing elections and a return to the ballot boxes on citizens for the second time within this year and for the fourth time within less than two years, this truly would be one of the greatest challenges for the country and one of the most undesirable acts for the state and its citizens, the severe consequences of which no one can accurately predict in advance, which I hope does not happen.
Based on the bitter experience of inter-party disagreements over the election of the president in the Assembly, which have repeatedly led Kosovo to snap elections, we make a public appeal that at least this time an inter-party agreement be reached on a consensual president. Immediately after the election of the president, the double majority must be secured and the amendments for the necessary constitutional changes must by all means be voted in the Assembly by the new legislature, so that from now on the country’s president is elected directly by the people and no longer by the Assembly, if we want such highly negative situations for Kosovo not to be repeated in the future as well, after national elections are held in our country,” Gani Qarri concluded to “Bota sot”.
