Court gives Thaci's party right to propose assembly speaker

Court gives Thaci's party right to propose assembly speaker

PRIŠTINA -- There will be no snap parliamentary elections in Kosovo, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has decided, Tanjug is reporting.

The court also "gave the opportunity to the biggest parliamentary group, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) of the outgoing Prime Minister Hasim Taci, to put forward a candidate for chairperson of the Kosovo Assembly."

The decision concerning the procedure for setting up the assembly, rendered in full 40 pages, was published Tuesday. According to Tanjug, a previously published incomplete decision "sparked doubts about the outcome of the parliamentary crisis in Kosovo following the June elections."

In deciding that there will be no early elections, the Constitutional Court found that all members of the Kosovo Assembly had to attend the election of the assembly chairperson, the media in Priština said.

The Constitutional Court made the decision at the request of Taci’s PDK, which had sought an assessment of the constitutionality of the course of the Kosovo Assembly meeting of July 17 when leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, was elected chairperson. The PDK claims that his election was unconstitutional and unlawful.

The PDK said that, as party that led the coalition winning the elections, it, rather than the post-electoral coalition composed of Isa Mustafa's Democratic League of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, and Fatmir Limaj’s Initiative for Kosovo, had the constitutional right to elect one of its members as assembly chairperson.

Acting on the PDK’s request, the Constitutional Court had previously suspended the decision on the election...