Kosovo’s institutions and politicians show maturity in choosing the next head of state.
By ANDI BALLA
Kosovo is a new state still trying to fully establish its institutions, yet the unfolding of events over who will be Kosovo’s next president shows these institutions function independently and according to letter of the law.
This can be seen in how Kosovo’s institutions and politicians have shown enviable maturity in the process of choosing the country’s next head of state.
The recent election of Behgjet Pacolli, the international construction tycoon, as president was invalidated by the Kosovo Constitutional Court over irregularities in the voting process in parliament. The decision came a mere few weeks after he started performing his duties, which included a full state visit to Tirana a couple of weeks ago, something that has become mandatory for any new Kosovo leader.
To solve the crisis, it now appears Kosovo’s parties have come up with a consensus candidate from the late President Ibrahim Rugova’s party – a woman no less – to move the country forward.
Pacolli first said he would run again, but then decided to withdraw to make room for the consensus candidate. He said the country’s interests where too important to leave the presidential post in limbo, which could have triggered a general election.
Patriotism aside, Pacolli might have also not been able to get enough votes for reelection, as his support among the members of the Kosovo parliament, who get to elect the head of state, was precarious at best. He barely got enough votes the first time, including having to vote for himself, and the process was conducted the wrong way, allowing for a challenge at the Constitutional Court, which led to the decision that his elections was unconstitutional. Pacolli’s party got roughly 8 percent of the vote in the general elections so his lack of popularity among members of parliament is understandable, and his election as president came in as part of a kingmaker process that allowed his party to prop up the current coalition government.
While replacing a president just a few weeks after electing him might not seem like something that would happen in a well-established democracy, the way the Kosovars handled the crisis is to be admired.
The results are no doubt helped by a healthy dose of international intervention – Kosovo is after all still run to a large extent by an EU-international bureaucracy consortium, which either has a direct role in its affairs, as is the case with EU-appointed foreign judges, or puts on such pressure on Kosovo politicians that it usually gets what it wants.
But nonetheless, the Kosovo political parties could have made much more of a fuss about the election if they decided to look south of the border to Albania for guidance. Thankfully, they didn’t.
To be clear, as in Albania, the role of the Kosovo president is weak, so the position does not come with a lot of constitutional power. But despite the short life of the new Kosovar state, the presidential post has already accumulated some interesting history. Before Pacolli, there was only an acting president – the parliament’s speaker – because the post remained vacant as the former president, Fatmir Sejdiu, decided it was more important to remain at the head of his party than as head of state. (The constitution prohibits the president from being part of any political party.)
As this newspaper goes to press, the new president is expected to be Atifete Jahjaga, a woman currently second in command of Kosovo’s police force, which is another lesson Kosovo is sending to its cousins in Albania, where no woman politicians has ever held top executive roles such a prime minister, president or even Tirana mayor of that matter.
