Mayors of northern municipalities are thinking about submitting a request to the Constitutional Court to declare the administrative instruction for the recall of the mayors as unconstitutional, thus preventing their dismissal, it was confirmed for KoSSev.
On the day when the first petition for the recall of the mayor of Zubin Potok was delivered to the Central Electoral Commission, after the same petitions were launched in all northern municipalities, news arrived that the mayors in question met in Leposavic.
Izmir Zeqiri (Zubin Potok), Ilir Peci (Zvecan), Erden Atić (North Mitrovica) met with the mayor of Leposavic, Lulzim Hetemi, this week. The officials from the Ministry of Local Self-Government Administration also attended the meeting.
The mayor of Zubin Potok, Izmir Zeqiri, who announced the news of this meeting on Tuesday, briefly stated that they had the opportunity to discuss „all challenges and problems“.
According to unofficial information obtained by KoSSev, at this meeting, they also discussed the possibility of submitting a request to the Constitutional Court to declare the Administrative Instruction for the recall of the mayor passed by the Kosovo government this summer as unconstitutional, in other words, for the court to issue a ban on the recall of the mayor until a final decision is made.
Zeqiri confirmed today for KoSSev that this topic was discussed at this meeting.
„We were just considering it, we haven’t made a decision yet,“ Zeqiri said.
When asked when the decision could be made, he said that we would be informed about everything, emphasizing that they were „only talking“ about submitting a request to the Constitutional Court.
When asked whether the mayors believe that the administrative instruction is altogether not in accordance with the constitution or only certain articles, Zeqiri replied that the implementation of the process for the recall by the initiative group, the collection of signatures for the petition, is problematic.
Previously, Zeqiri also claimed that the process of collecting signatures for his removal was irregular, claiming that Srpska Lista was behind it and that allegedly „the group is putting pressure on the Serbs“. He also expressed the belief that „the petition will not be successful“.
Signatures for the recall of the mayor were collected last week in Zubin Potok, Leposavic, North Mitrovica and Zvecan.
The initiative groups that organized this process claim that they have the support of more than 20% of the electorate.
The petitions were then delivered to the presidents of the Municipal Assemblies in the north of Kosovo, who then forwarded them to the Central Election Commission. This commission is obliged to consider the petitions and then confirm them, if it determines that no irregularities have been recorded.
If the CEC confirms the petitions, then the voting for the replacement of the mayor will be organized. In order for this step to be successfully implemented, 50% plus one voter with the right to vote in these municipalities have to vote in favor of dismissal.
The recall process is now further complicated by the fact that Kosovo has not passed the Referendum Law.
If this endeavour is successful, the President of Kosovo is obliged to call for extraordinary elections for mayors.
The current mayors of North Mitrovica, Zubina Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan were elected in the elections held in April last year, which were boycotted by the local Serbs, who previously withdrew from the Kosovo institutions.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
