The President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, has not yet invited political parties for consultations regarding the setting of the date for local elections, despite the start of the legal deadline for such a thing.

The Office of the Presidency has not responded to KosovaPress regarding when the elections will be announced, however, experts on electoral processes link the "delay" to the political crisis and the impasse over the constitution of the Kosovo Assembly, following the parliamentary elections of February 9.

They even emphasize that political parties should be interested in holding new extraordinary elections simultaneously with local elections, if the political crisis cannot be resolved, to avoid the risk of citizen non-participation.

An expert on electoral processes, researcher at the Democratic Institute of Kosovo, Eugen Cakolli, tells KosovaPress that based on the legislation in force, local elections can be held from mid-August and no later than November.

According to him, President Osmani now has the discretion to announce the date of the local elections, however, he adds that the president must first invite political parties for consultations.

Despite the fact that there is still room for such a thing, he emphasizes that the country's first lady has not invited the parties due to the political crisis in the country.

"We are now officially within the deadline when the president has the discretion to announce the date of local elections after consultations with the parties. Local elections should be held from the end of August and at the latest by November. Practice so far shows that elections have been held sometimes in September and sometimes in October, with the run-off being in November. I believe that among the reasons that the president has not yet called the consultative meeting, although she still has room to do so, is related to the political situation regarding the constitution of the Assembly. It is a kind of public secret that political parties want, if there are to be extraordinary elections, to be held on the same day as the local ones. This avoids the risk of citizens not participating due to fatigue or perhaps empathy that may arise due to the created political situation," he emphasizes.

On the other hand, university professor of Constitutional Law, Mazllum Baraliu, says that if political parties do not find a solution for the constitution of the Assembly, then general elections could very easily be held on the same date as local elections.

"The local election process is a special process that is foreseen by the Constitution and the Law on Local Elections. It has other constitutional and legal deadlines. The President must do her job and so must the CEC. But if there is a political agreement in this political impasse for political entities to go to the elections, then local and parliamentary elections can be held at the same time," he adds.

Even three months after the February 9 elections, the new institutions in the country have still not been established.

One month after the certification of the election results, the elected deputies have failed to constitute the Assembly ten times in a row.

The impasse is in the election of the Speaker of the Assembly, where the Vetevendosje Movement, as the first party in the election, has the exclusive right to nominate a candidate for Speaker of the Assembly, based on the 2014 Constitutional Court ruling. However, MP Albulena Haxhiu, proposed by LVV, has failed six times in a row to receive the 61 votes needed to take this position.

This situation, according to KDI researcher Eugen Cakolli, is evidence that the country is heading towards new elections, but according to him, no projection presents a different result than the current one.

"If seen based on the political barricade that the parties have, the chances are that there will be elections again for the Assembly of Kosovo, but on the other hand, no projection presents an opposite result or one that would essentially favor the LVV or other parties in the event that elections are held," he adds.

According to the Law on Local Elections, the date of local elections must be set no earlier than 60 days before the end of the mandate, and no later than 30 days after the end of the mandate of the elected bodies.

Since the last local elections were held on October 17, 2021, their 4-year term ends in October 2025.

Therefore, the President of Kosovo must announce the elections so that they can be held: no earlier than August 17, 2025 (60 days before the end of the mandate) and no later than November 16, 2025 (30 days after the end of the mandate). /kp/

KosovoNEWS