Kosovo Opposition Parties Seek Votes to Oust Govt

Initiated by the opposition Initiative for Kosovo, Nisma, Kosovo opposition parties are trying to attract MPs from all parties to support a new no-confidence motion in Isa Mustafa's coalition government.

By Wednesday, apart from MPs from the opposition Vetevendosje party and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, Nisma hopes for the support of three MPs from the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK.

PDK MPs Shukri Buja, Shaip Muja and Nait Hasani have stated openly that they will support any motion to overthrow the government.

"I support any motion, no matter who initiates it, because this government has failed to achieve its objectives," PDK MP Nait Hasani told BIRN on Wednesday.

The three opposition parties in parliament have 30 seats, but to call a parliamentary session on a motion of no-confidence, they need 40 signatures, which they believe they will have.

"I believe the votes we lack as an opposition we will have from the [three] PDK MPs and from the MPs from the non-Serbian [minority] communities," Haxhi Shala, a Nisma MP, told BIRN .

He added that they will work on gathering the necessary number of signatures by Friday.

"Next week we believe we can proceed with the signatures ... requesting a parliamentary session" Shala said.

If the motion makes it to parliament, the opposition will then need 61 votes in order to oust the government.

Ismet Beqiri, chief of the parliamentary group of Prime Minister Mustafa's Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, has dismissed the possibility of the government being overthrown.

The opposition has been demanding the fall of the government for two years, mainly over the controversial agreements that the government signed in Brussels on 2015 on border demarcation...