Kabashi: October 6 is the final deadline for electing the president; afterwards, the path to new elections opens

Constitutional law lecturer Ditar Kabashi has spoken about the constitutional deadline for electing Kosovo’s president and the possibility of heading to new elections.

Speaking about the situation after the Constitutional Court’s latest judgment, Kabashi said that for now only the conclusions of the decision are known, while the full reasoning has not yet been made public.

“The Constitutional Court, which issued a notice about the latest judgment, which it proclaimed on its website, found several things. One of them was that the Kosovo Assembly was constituted after the deadline. So far we do not know the form of the reasoning, we only have the form of the conclusion,” Kabashi said.

According to him, one of the most important parts of the Constitutional Court’s conclusion relates to the deadline for electing the president when the office remains vacant.

“More interesting is that the Court found that exceeding the 30-day deadline for constituting the Assembly, provided for in Article 66, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, also results in the expiry of the deadline for the office of president — in cases where the president’s office is vacant,” he said.

Kabashi assessed that in this case the Constitutional Court made a different interpretation from the one given in the March 26 judgment of this year.

“The most interesting point is that the Constitutional Court makes a kind of departure from the judgment of March 26 of this year. In cases where there is no constituted Assembly and the president’s mandate expires, the count should start from the day the Assembly begins to be constituted. Then the date was February 11,” Kabashi said.

Meanwhile, according to him, in the current case the Constitutional Court took a different date as its starting point.

“Meanwhile, in this case it took as its basis the date of certification of the elections and said: if on August 8 the elections were certified, then according to the Constitution there was a deadline to constitute, and that deadline should run from that day,” he explained.

By that calculation, October 6 represents the final deadline for electing the president.

“October 6 is the last date for electing the president. After October 6, the count goes toward elections. The last Sunday of the 45-day deadline. If preparations are made, the elections can be organized,” Kabashi said.

Kabashi was speaking on RTV Dukagjini’s “Five” show about the role and powers of the Constitutional Court.

Kabashi said it would not be a problem for the Constitutional Court to clarify issues related to the implementation of the Constitution, but in his view it would be wrong if it determined consequences not foreseen in the country’s highest legal act.

“It is not wrong, but it would be wrong if consequences were determined if the Constitutional Court took on the role of the Constitution’s writer, of the legislator. The Constitutional Court has the obligation only to interpret the Constitution,” Kabashi said.

According to him, the interpretation of constitutional provisions must be made within the powers given to the Constitutional Court, without moving into creating new legal rules.