Constitutional Court

Applicants, 32 deputies of the Assembly of Republic of Kosovo, submitted a referral to the Constitutional Court alleging that the President committed and continues to commit a serious violation of Article 88,2 of the Constitution, by holding the Office of the President of the Republic and, according to them, the Office of Chairman/President of Democratic League of Kosovo, After submission of the referral signed by 31 deputies, the Court notes that three of deputies who were signatories had withdrawn their signatures, and this, in the opinion of President’s representatives renders the referral inadmissible,,,,, In addition to this, the opposing party in its reply also stated that deputies did not submit their request within the deadline required under the Constitution and ultimately, that President did not “exercise” his function in the stated political party but that he had “frozen” that function, The Constitutional Court decided to declare the referral admissible with the reasoning that the matter is “referred [to the Court] in a legal manner by the authorized party” and the moment of referring the matter is the moment when it is decided if applicant is an authorized party, Furthermore, the Court recalled that even after a party withdraws, the Court could choose to decide on the referral, Regarding the deadline of 30 days from the violation as foreseen under the Constitution, the Court considered that the alleged violation of the President presents a continuing situation since the President continues to hold those two offices even at the time when referral is submitted, Court decided that there was a violation of Article 88,2 of the Constitution in holding of the two above mentioned functions, with reasoning that it is not possible to “freeze” a party function, Furthermore, the Court decided that since the above mentioned President and party “benefit from their association with one another”, means that this party function was “exercised”