Kurti: We will have 61 votes for government, but first the constitution of the Assembly

Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti has revealed his positions regarding the constitution of the Kosovo Assembly, which will be the 19th attempt tomorrow.

Kurti said that they believed that the constitution of the legislature would be done quickly, while regarding the name of Albulena Haxhiu, who has not yet managed to receive the necessary votes to ascend to the head of the Assembly, he said that it is the right proposal.

"We believed that we would have the constitution of the assembly very quickly. We proposed Albulena Haxhiu, who is the most voted woman as an MP in the ninth legislature. I believe that it is the right proposal, except that we are obliged to have the proposal as the winning party. 57 MPs were for Albulena Haxhiu, 61 were needed, among them are not only from the LVV-Alternativa e Guxo coalition but also minority MPs. We did not manage to have 61, we tried several times," said Kurti, while one by one he spoke about how the initial formation of the commission for the verification of mandates failed, and according to him, later those who opposed it realized that they were wrong.

The acting head of government said that seeing that they did not have 61 votes, they tried to have the president give them the solution.

"The Speaker, Avni Dehari, sent a letter to the President and she said that you yourself must find the solution. We went from open voting to trying to have a secret ballot, but now we are at this point where the commission for the election by secret ballot has been rejected 10 times. It is unfortunate, since the Constitutional Court's judgment in points 124 and 125 states that the election must be held by open or secret ballot. We have our options, but what is happening is unprecedented because the quorum is being made impossible, because the judgment also says that all MPs, each and every one, must vote for, against or abstain. But what we have now is not the name of Albulena Haxhiu anymore, but the opposition to the secret ballot through the inability of the quorum, which is a violation of the judgment," Kurti said, among other things.

He mentioned the invitations he made to PDK and LDK in an attempt to break the deadlock, which according to him, the trilateral meeting ended with a bilateral and unsuccessful one.

Kurti said that the solution is not to impose proposals on each other.

"I believe that the right solution going forward is not to impose proposals on each other, but to elect the president and vice presidents together as a package and to begin the countdown to forming the government, because now the countdown is going up," Kurti said.

He said that the LDK, which did not respond to the meeting, had told him that it was not the place and time for a procedural agreement, but that a political agreement was needed, so he offered a government coalition to the LDK, which, according to him, was harshly rejected.

"Tomorrow, Albulena, which is our proposal, is not in question, but the secret ballot commission is in question. If the opposition is sure that Albulena will not win again, let them try it with a secret ballot. As soon as the assembly is constituted, as the chairman of the party that won the elections, I will have a minimum of 61 votes for the new government, but first we need a new assembly," he said.

The acting Prime Minister said that during his four-year mandate, there has been state sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as social welfare and economic growth, according to him, unprecedented.

"6 percent on average per year, never falling below 4 percent of gross domestic product, and now it's time to have a new assembly for the new government in the ninth legislature. We aimed for 500 thousand votes, as is known. We had a good result with about 400 thousand votes, with 48 deputies," Kurti said in an interview with RTK.