Kosovo has until 6 October to elect the new president. If the Parliament fails to do this, what follows is clear: The Assembly is distributed and extraordinary elections are announced. But far less clear is who would wield the president’s powers after that?
The Constitutional Court, in the latest indictment of the Ko256/26 and KO258/26 cases, has concluded that the 60-day term for election of the president began on August 8th and ends on October 6th.
This is directly related to Article 82 of the Constitution, under which the Assembly is distributed if the president is not elected within 60 days of the start of the selection procedure, writes Free Europe.
So if the president is not elected by 6 October, a special decision by the Assembly for his distribution is not needed simply to activate the constitutional provisions for the distribution of the Assembly.
The court had clarified this principle earlier. In the act of March 2026, it had concluded that failure to elect the president within the constitutional deadline leads to the distribution of the Parliament and early elections, which should be held within 45 days.
But another constitutional problem arises here: Who remains at the head of the state?
Under ordinary circumstances, the president’s competencies would exercise the chairman of the Assembly as the president’s task counsel.
But in the current situation, this constitutional solution has been complicated by the fact that Parliament Speaker Albulen Haxhiu has already exercised the task for six months.
Hadziu took office after the end of Vjosa Osmani’s mandate on April 4th. But, according to Article 90, paragraph 3 of the Constitution, the post of the incumbent’s duty could not be exercised for a period longer than six months.
This six – month period ended on Sunday, October 4.
Constitutional Inequities
It is here that a uncertainty arises that the Constitution does not expressly address: who exercises presidential competencies after the maximum six-month period of taskeering ends, while the new president has not yet been elected?
According to the interpretations of several civil society organisations in the country, the six-month border of Article 90 is absolute. In this reading, Haxhiu cannot continue to exercise presidential competencies only because the new president has not yet been elected.
Naim Jakaj from the Kosovo Institute for Justice argues that, after the deadline is expired, the country remains without the president’s duty.
Jakaj tells Radio Free Europe that this poses danger to constitutional chaos, because without president some important state tasks may remain untrained.
The president is also the Supreme Commander of the Kosovo Security Force. If the country remains without a president and without a task leader with a valid mandate, there will be no one to exercise this post, Jakaj says.
Jakaj adds that the task leader was seen as a temporary solution, during which political parties would have to reach agreement on electing the president.
Unfortunately, so far more has been seen which party belongs to the post than the process and criteria the president must meet, he estimates.
Thus, this constitutional vacuum creates an immediate practical problem: If by midnight the Parliament fails to elect the new president, who would exercise the other competencies that the Constitution assigns to the president, and who would declare early elections?
In an analysis released on October 2nd, the Kosovo Democratic Institute ( KDI, which examines the exercise of the president’s office beyond the six-month border, estimated that the Constitution does not clearly predict who exercises presidential competence after its completion.
KDI called on Parliament Speaker Albulen Haxhiu, in the quality of the president’s task manager, or other authorised parties, to address the Constitutional Court for clarification regarding the exercise of these competencies after 4 October and the authority to declare elections in case the president is not elected.
So far, such a request has not been made.
Radio Free Europe asked the President’s Office if Haxhiu could continue to exercise presidential competencies after the end of the six-month term, who would announce early elections in the event of the Parliament’s distribution, and whether the Constitutional Court would be required for clarification, but no response was received.
The Constitutional Court, until now, has not specifically resolved this constitutional vacuum, while, according to KDI, the lack of an expressed follow-up mechanism after the six-month end creates uncertainty about exercising the president’s competencies.
This is especially important, as some of these competencies are necessary for exit from the crisis.
The president, the leader of the post, respectively, is the one who proclaims elections for the Parliament and, after the elections, calls the first meeting of the new legislature.
Therefore, if the president is not elected by 6 October, the issue is not only when the upcoming elections will be held but also who will have the authority to declare them.
According to Jakaj, since it seems there will not be a quick agreement between political parties, perhaps the Parliament has had to hold the voting process for president Monday, even if the vote failed.
In that case, the task leader could call political parties and set the date for new elections. After the elections, the new Assembly would meet within the constitutional deadline and elect the president. The president would then appoint the mandate for forming the government. This would be an urgent option to get the country off the blockade, Jakaj tells the REL.
In the absence of a clear constitutional interpretation, this dilemma could end again before the Constitutional Court.