by Karl Kurtz
The minority party walks out of a legislative session, denying the presence of a quorum, and a court has to rule if the action taken by the remaining majority members was legal. Sounds like Wisconsin, right?
In this case, though, it's in Kosovo, a part of the former Yugoslavia that declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. In February of this year, 67 of the 120 members of the Kosovo Assembly elected Behgjet Pacolli as president of Kosovo, a largely ceremonial position in a system in which the prime minister heads the government. Pacolli is the leader of the smaller party in a two-party coalition that formed a government after elections last November.
Sixty-seven of 120 votes is clearly a majority. Only trouble is, the Kosovar constitution requires that two-thirds of the members be present for the election of a president. All of the minority parties took a walk during this vote because they objected to Pacolli's election, so there was no quorum present. Last week the country's constitutional court ruled that the election of the president was invalid. The Assembly will have to conduct another election, and, if they are unable to obtain a majority with a two-thirds quorum present, the parliament will have to be dissolved and new elections called.
In his book on filibusters and other parliamentary delaying tactics by minority parties, political scientist Gregory Koger said that he found 19 examples of legislative obstruction in countries outside the United States. Kosovo (where NCSL has a subcontract to do legislative strengthening work) adds one more to the list.
Photo credit: Balkaninsight.com
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