A political agreement to elect Kosovo's next president raised hopes that the country would finally be able to emerge from its nearly two-year political crisis. But those hopes were quickly dashed when lawmakers from one side of the agreement also came out against the deal.
The responsibility for the failure of the presidential election, which until now had been shifted from one party to the other, is now being placed on six members of parliament from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) – by the party's leader, Lumir Abdixhiku, as well as by his counterpart from the Vetëvendosje Movement, Albin Kurti.
Their candidate, Bekim Sejdiu, does not appear to have the necessary support to be elected the new president of Kosovo.
Individual votes versus party stance
Legal and political experts tell Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) that the responsibility for electing the president in an Assembly of 120 deputies cannot be limited to six specific deputies.
According to them, political agreements between parties do not replace the individual mandate of the MP. Even when a party has reached an agreement on how to vote, the MP, in exercising his mandate, decides for himself how he will vote in the Assembly.
The Constitution, the Law on the Rights and Responsibilities of the Deputy and the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly build the position of the deputy on the principle of a free mandate. So, the deputy is a representative of the people, and is not subject to a binding mandate, while the law determines that during the mandate he is subject to his conscience, says Naim Jakaj, researcher at the Kosovo Law Institute (IKD).
"This means that the party's political agreement has political weight, but it does not eliminate the right of the MP to take an individual position on an issue that is voted on in the Assembly. The party can request that its MPs support a certain position, but the final decision in the Assembly remains with the MP," Jakaj told REL.
Abit Hoxha, a lecturer and researcher at the University of Agder in Norway, says that six specific MPs cannot be blamed for exercising their right to independent opinion as representatives of the people.
"One of the powers that our democracy gives to the opposition, or a minority over the majority, is the quorum mechanism, which is not unconstitutional. It is precisely what defines the constitutionality of the Republic of Kosovo as a new democracy," Hoxha tells REL.
Why responsibility cannot be legal
Jakaj emphasizes that these six MPs may also bear political responsibility for the failure to implement an agreement between parties, but not constitutional or legal.
"If a portion of LDK MPs do not support the candidate, this could create a political problem for the party that entered into the agreement, but it does not mean that they alone are responsible for the eventual failure of the presidential election," he emphasizes.
In addition to the LDK six - Avdullah Hoti, Hykmete Bajrami, Arben Gashi, Armend Zemaj, Kujtim Shala and Janina Ymeri - there are at least 40 other MPs from Albanian parliamentary parties and the Serbian community who have not expressed public support for Sejdiu's candidacy.
Part of the LDK six has justified itself by saying that they do not want to give "more power to Kurti", whose party won the June 7 elections and is expected to have the numbers to form the new government, while another part has said that they do not see Sejdiu as a unifying figure.
Hoxha emphasizes that the mechanism that ensures the most representative democracy and ensures the independent opinion of Kosovo's deputies, enables the people's representatives to vote as they wish. "Otherwise, it would be the tyranny of the majority," he underlines.
Kosovo risks entering an unprecedented state of constitutional vacuum and, in the institutional plan, a form of anarchy, if a new president is not elected by October 4, warns Jakaj.
This, according to him, increases the political responsibility of all actors to find solutions, but does not change the constitutional position of the MP and does not create a legal obligation for him to vote for a specific candidate.
LDK leader Lumir Abdixhiku has accused his party's six MPs of leading the country to new elections.
Can the LDK punish the six dissenting MPs?
Criticizing them for "leading the country to elections," Abdixhiku also warned of "consequences" for the six party members, even hinting that they should "surrender their MP mandate."
According to Jakaj, the MP's relationship with the party should be clearly separated from his constitutional status in the Assembly.
However, he says, party measures cannot result in the loss of a parliamentary mandate just because the MP voted differently from the party's position.
"The mandate of a deputy ends in cases determined by the Constitution and law, not by decision of party bodies. Therefore, any internal measure must be assessed taking into account the boundary between party discipline and the constitutional autonomy of the deputy in exercising the mandate," according to him. /Taken from Radio Free Europe
