Failure to constitute the Assembly/ President Osmani receives political representatives in an attempt to resolve the institutional crisis

Kosovo's President, Vjosa Osmani, is meeting separately with representatives of political parties today, in an effort to resolve the institutional crisis in the country.

Despite 40 attempts, the elected members of the Kosovo Assembly have not yet managed to constitute the legislative institution.

Parliamentary elections were held on February 9.

In a decision issued last week, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo ordered the constitution of the Assembly within 30 days.

Since the verdict, two more sessions have been held in the Assembly, but without result.

Representatives of political parties blame each other for lack of responsibility.

The Vetëvendosje Movement, which won the most votes in the February 9 elections, insists on the name of Albulena Haxhiu for parliamentary speaker.

But Haxhiu, for several times in a row, has failed to secure the 61 votes necessary for this position.

Vetëvendosje insists on a secret ballot, but other parties are against it, and therefore reject the request of the chairman of the constitutive session, Avni Dehari, to propose representatives for the commission that would oversee the secret ballot.

President Osmani's advisor, Bekim Kupina, said on June 30 that she expects the parties represented in the Assembly to implement the Constitutional Court's ruling and conclude the constitutive session within 30 days.

"If the need arises, the president remains ready to address the Constitutional Court for additional clarifications," said Kupina.

Experts on legal and constitutional issues say that the Constitutional Court's ruling does not seem to have brought a solution to the institutional crisis in Kosovo, so, according to them, the solution can only come through a political agreement, or with the intervention of the president. /REL