Hamza: The law on the Specialist Chambers should not be tied to the election of the president

The chairman of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Bedri Hamza, has again opposed Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s request to link approval of the draft law amending the Law on the Specialist Chambers with the process of electing the president.

Kurti has proposed Glauk Konjufca and Feride Rushiti for the presidency, presenting this as a precondition for the law on the Specialist Chambers to pass its second reading.

Hamza said the issue should not be turned into a last-minute deal and accused the prime minister of trying to use the law as leverage to achieve a political objective.

He said the aim was to use the issue to install a political president and complete the capture of state institutions. Hamza also stressed that amending the Law on the Specialist Chambers was not an issue concerning only the PDK.

The PDK leader said his party would not accept political blackmail during the presidential election process and opposed linking the vote on the law to the names proposed for head of state.

Hamza said the parties had held repeated meetings and talks, but that, in his view, the seriousness of the process was called into question by the differing positions expressed throughout the day.

He said that in their latest communication, held around midday, he had informed Kurti that the PDK could support the law at its second reading and that discussions about the president could take place afterward.

Hamza described it as unacceptable for a law concerning a major issue to be conditioned on the election of the president. He noted that while the LDK and PDK had been told there could be no political president, candidates whom he considers clearly political had themselves been proposed.

According to him, the proposed names had also been discussed earlier, but no agreement had been reached and the country had ended up holding elections. Hamza said the president could have been elected, but only through an agreement—not by imposing a name with a “take it or leave it” formula.

He asked why this kind of communication had not taken place three or ten days earlier, or the previous day, but only that same morning. According to Hamza, in the evening hours, an explanation is being sought for why all institutions are not being captured.