The Constitutional Court of Kosovo declared invalid Etem Arifi’s vote in favor of Hoti’s government, ruling that the actual government did not receive the necessary votes in parliament to be legitimate. As a result, the Court ruled today that the country should hold its next elections within 40 days. The actual government led by Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti received 61 votes in parliament in the 3d of June session, including the vote from Arifi, even though he was sentenced with one year and 3 months in prison for fraud with subsidies during the time of the voting from the Court of Appeal. Considering that in the Parliament of Kosovo the majority is reached with 61 votes, the vote of Arifi was considered as vital for the government’s existence.
“Vetëvendosje” sent the case to the Constitutional Court on July 11, claiming that Arifi did not have legitimacy, as he was already convicted. The Court approved the request, by calling the Article 71.1 of the Constitution of Kosovo, in conjunction with Article 29.1 (q) of the Law on General Elections, which states that “a person convicted of a criminal offence by a final court decision in three (3) recent years cannot be a candidate for the deputy position or win a valid mandate in the Parliament.”
After just one year and two months after the last parliamentary elections, Kosovo will again go to the polls, this time during an ongoing pandemic. The co-government of Kurti born out of the last elections lasted only 50 days, after the allies of LDK requested a motion of confidence to overthrow the government, following a series of contradicts between LDK and VV.
