Kosovo Faces New Elections After Court Rules Govt Illegitimate

The Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti's government is illegitimate because it was voted in by a majority in the Kosovo Assembly that included a vote cast by MP Etem Arifi, who was given a prison sentence for corruption.

"A person convicted of a criminal offence by a final court decision in the three last years cannot be a candidate for deputy or win a valid mandate in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo," the Constitutional Court said.

Arifi was sentenced to one year and three months in prison on August 20, 2019. He received an MP's mandate less than two months later, at snap parliamentary elections on October 6, 2019.

As Arifi's vote for Hoti's government was therefore invalid, "the government did not receive the majority of votes of all deputies of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo", the court's decision said.

New elections must now be held within a couple of months, according to the court's decision, and Kosovo will have its third change of government in less than two years.

Kosovo's Acting President Vjosa Osmani is set to meet political parties on Tuesday.

"Political parties will be invited tomorrow [Tuesday] by Acting President Osmani to discuss the date of the elections," Osmani's advisor, Bekim Kupina, told BIRN on Monday evening.

Kosovo's largest opposition party, the Vetevendosje Movement, which brought the complaint to the court, welcomed the ruling in its favour.

"We have been waiting for such a decision from the Constitutional Court considering that only ten days after the Hoti government was voted in, Vetevendosje reached the conclusion that one vote was illegal," Albulena Haxhiu of Vetevendosje, a former justice minister, told BIRN.

Hoti's...