29 November 2019 – Balkans Group’s new article presents the process and the steps required to constitute the new Assembly and form the government. Leaders of the institutions, political parties and the newly elected members of the assembly shall act maturely and help the formation of the institutions with no delay. Scenarios of 2014 and 2017 and obstacles of the past shall be strongly rejected.
The article, Kosovo 2019: Avoiding a Post-Election Crisis – A Roadmap from Certification to Inauguration, outlines the procedure and legal steps from the certification of the results to the vote of the government; the graphic illustrates this path. It also explains the roles each of the institution has to play and actions they have to take.
President of Kosovo, former Speaker and representatives of the winning, but also of all the parliamentary parties have to act in good faith, fully implement Constitution articles, Rule of Procedure of the Assembly, and undertake necessary actions to drive and conclude the process.
Importantly, as the article justifies, Balkans Group request from all actors to treat the notion of constituting the Assembly and forming the Government as two distinct processes. The former is a direct democratic mandate stemming from the elections; thus, all parties and members of the parliament are obliged to actively participate. The latter depends on securing an assembly working majority to form it.
If all mechanisms perform as prescribed within the minimum time constraints and without undue delays, the new Assembly can be operational, and the government can be formed before mid-January 2020. Failing on this agenda, citizens would need to go back to the polls in early March next year, which will be another devastating scenario for Kosovo.
