Kosovo Assembly still not constituted as Gola approved and Çitaku rejected

The constitutive session of the Kosovo Assembly was once again suspended and will resume on Sunday, September 13, at 10:00 a.m. The 11th legislature remains unconstituted, as the election of all deputy speakers has not been completed.

During the continuation of the session, Vetëvendosje Movement MP Ardian Gola was elected deputy speaker of the Assembly with 101 votes in favour and one abstention. His candidacy received no votes against.

Meanwhile, Vlora Çitaku, proposed by the Democratic Party of Kosovo for the post of deputy speaker, failed to secure the required majority. Forty-four MPs voted in her favour, one voted against and 56 abstained.

After the vote was completed and it was determined that Çitaku had not been elected, Assembly Speaker Albulena Haxhiu asked the PDK to once again exercise its right to nominate its candidate. The party’s MPs left the chamber, causing the proceedings to be suspended.

PDK announces it will take the matter to the Constitutional Court

The session continued in the afternoon, but Haxhiu said she had been unable to hold a meeting with PDK representatives. According to her, the party had announced that it would not take part in the continuation of the session and that it would turn to the Constitutional Court over the vote for deputy speaker.

The Assembly Speaker repeated her call for the PDK to return to the chamber and put forward its candidate. She warned that if PDK MPs were absent, the procedure would continue with the candidate of the Democratic League of Kosovo.

LDK leaves following disagreement over procedure

LDK MP Jehona Lushaku-Sadriu called for all possibilities for an agreement with the PDK, the second-largest parliamentary party, to be exhausted before her party’s candidacy was considered.

Lushaku-Sadriu stated that the LDK would not take part in the vote if the procedure continued without first resolving the issue of the PDK candidate.

Haxhiu said that neither the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure nor the Constitutional Court’s rulings prevent the consideration of the third-largest parliamentary party’s candidate if the second-largest party does not nominate a candidate or does not participate in the session.

Following this statement, LDK MPs also left the chamber.

The circumstances forced Haxhiu to suspend the session. She announced that proceedings would continue on Sunday, September 13, at 10:00 a.m. The Kosovo Assembly has confirmed the course and results of the vote.