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What happens if Kosovo remains without a president after October 4?

2026-08-18 23:20:51Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Acting President Albulena Haxhiu, in the Presidency, with a portrait of Kosovo's first president, Ibrahim Rugova, seen in the background.

October 4th marks the end of the six-month period during which, according to the Constitution, an acting president of Kosovo can hold the position.

Albulena Haxhiu, as the Speaker of the tenth legislature of the Assembly of Kosovo, began exercising the duties of president on April 4, when Vjosa Osmani's five-year term as head of state ended.

As a result of the failure to reach a consensus among parliamentary political parties on the name of the next president of Kosovo, the country went to early parliamentary elections.

The Assembly resulting from the June 7th elections has remained unconstituted, despite the constitutional deadline for such a thing having passed, while political entities still seem far from an agreement on the president.

What if the new head of state of Kosovo is not elected by October 4? Who would lead Kosovo after that date?

Interpretations vary, and such a situation is not foreseen by the highest legal act in Kosovo - the Constitution.

Experts on political and legal developments in Kosovo consider that there is no constitutional basis for the country to continue to be led by an acting president after the end of the six-month period.

But, the Vetëvendosje Movement - the party that won the last elections - estimates that the new Speaker of the Assembly could hold the position until the election of the new president.

Eugen Cakolli, a researcher at the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), tells Radio Free Europe that the six-month period for the president to exercise his duties constitutes an absolute deadline, and as such cannot be repeated in any scenario.

Failure to elect a new president by October 4, according to Cakolli, constitutes the most dangerous constitutional scenario that Kosovo could face.

"In such a situation, the country would enter a constitutional terrain, which, besides being serious and dangerous, would necessarily require a submission to the Constitutional Court," he says.

Melos Kolshi, a legal researcher at the Kosovo Institute for Law (IKD), tells Radio Free Europe that after October 4, any continuation of the president's duties would be without constitutional basis, and would seriously violate the constitutional order.

He considers that the absence of a president with a constitutional mandate is not a formal issue - emphasizing the role that the president has in the functioning and formation of institutions, in representing the country, in security and defense, and in other procedures that the Constitution reserves to the head of state.

"The absence of a person with a constitutional basis to exercise these powers would put the country in the face of a new institutional and constitutional crisis, for which the Constitution does not provide a clear resolution mechanism," he says.

LVV: New acting president until his election

The situation is seen differently in LVV.

LVV MP in the Kosovo Assembly, Adnan Rrustemi, says that the position of the acting president is dependent on the position of the speaker of the Assembly.

According to him, after the election, the new Speaker of the Assembly begins exercising the duties of the President until the election of the President. The six-month term, set by the Constitution, begins to run from the beginning, with the election of the new Speaker of the Assembly, he says.

"It is in the spirit and content, but also in the function of the Constitution, to guarantee institutional continuity. Never, and for no reason, can the country be left without a president or an acting president. There can be no institutional vacuum under any circumstances," Rrustemi declared to Radio Free Europe.

Cakolli from KDI says that the interpretation that the six-month term is automatically renewed with the election of the new Speaker of the Assembly does not stand up to constitutional scrutiny.

He believes that this would also be dangerous, as it would relativize the importance of the presidential election.

"If we could elect a speaker of the Assembly whenever the six-month term is about to expire, we would only have an acting president continuously, which, as such, is not the idea or purpose of why the constitutional provisions in question exist," says Cakolli.

According to Kolshi from IKL, constitutional deadlines cannot be treated as indicative deadlines, while the Assembly cannot normalize decision-making outside of them.

"If, however, we reach a situation where the six-month term ends and the new president has not been elected, then we have serious uncertainty," he says.

In search of an agreement for the president, the LVV has not proposed its candidate for the new Speaker of the Assembly, leaving in suspense the constitution of the 11th legislature, which would also pave the way for the formation of the new government.

The eventual absence of an elected president after October 4, according to Cakolli, would make many procedures that need to be followed impossible.

In addition to the fact that the country would be left without a supreme commander of the army and without the body that balances powers, Cakolli says that "we would not even have the authority to decree the new prime minister, let alone take actions related to, for example, the issue of announcing possible elections and others."

Meanwhile, the issue of the 60-day deadline for electing the president, which begins only after the constitution of the Assembly, has also been raised in the debate.

Democratic League of Kosovo MP Avdullah Hoti told the media that within this period the parties must "find a candidate that is acceptable to all parties."

Cakolli says that the failure to constitute the Assembly within the deadline has created a double problem with constitutional deadlines: "The longer the constitution is delayed, the more this [60-day] deadline is extended beyond October 4, when the six-month term of the acting president ends."

According to him, the delay shortens the time available to the Assembly to resolve the issue of the president before the end of the six-month period during which there may be an acting president in place of the elected president.

"If the president is not elected and the 60-day deadline expires, an even more serious problem is created regarding the exercise of the power to potentially schedule elections, if the constitutional term of the acting president has also ended in the meantime," says Cakolli.

"This is the danger created by the delay. We have two constitutional deadlines that no longer run parallel and, in the scenario of a failed presidential election, could lead the country into a situation for which the Constitution does not offer a solution," he warns.

Kolshi, meanwhile, says that "the maximum six-month term for exercising the president's duties is a separate term, and is not related to the 60-day term for electing the president."

"Therefore, the eventual start of the 60-day period does not extend or suspend the six-month term of the acting president," he emphasizes.

What would be the solution?

According to IKL and KDI, the solution to this entire situation is to send the case to the Constitutional Court.

Cakolli says that at least ten members of the Kosovo Assembly, upon the passing of October 4, should request the Constitutional Court to, first, impose a temporary measure, and, second, to determine what the legal effect is of the Assembly's failure to elect the president before the expiration of the six-month term of office.

"Then it is up to the Court, whether based on the preparatory documents of the Constitution, or even on the basis of opinions it may receive from other countries, to determine what happens next: does the Speaker of the Assembly continue, or is there another instance that will take that position," he says.

Determining the constitutional consequences and the manner in which institutions function in such a situation, also according to Kolshi, should be the key issue to be defined by the Constitutional Court.

"Therefore, the solution must be sought, first and foremost, within the existing constitutional deadlines, through the election of a new president. Allowing these deadlines to pass, without the election of a president, would put Kosovo in an uncharted constitutional territory, where the continuation of the exercise of the office, beyond the six-month limit, cannot be justified without a clear constitutional basis."

According to Rrustemi of LVV, the solution is the election of a new president, for whom, he says, there must be dialogue and political agreement.

Regarding the mandate of the acting president and the actions that should be taken in the event of failure to elect a new president by October 4, Radio Free Europe also asked the Office of the President, but did not receive a response by the time of publication of this text.

According to the Constitution of Kosovo, the president is elected by the Assembly, by secret ballot.

The election is made with two-thirds of the votes of all members of the Assembly, or 80 votes out of the 120 members of the Assembly of Kosovo.

The process of electing the president can be organized in up to three votes. If even in the third round – when 61 votes are required from at least 80 deputies present in the hall – none of the candidates receives the necessary votes, the Assembly is dissolved and new elections are announced, which must be held within 45 days. /Taken from Radio Free Europe


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