DEMONSTRATION OF POWER OR REAL ELECTIONS?

AIM Pristina, 31 December, 1997

After forcible dissolution or, as Serbian authorities like to call it, suspension of the Assembly of Kosovo, Kosovo Albanians who had just come out of a monistic system, gathered around their leader Ibrahim Rugova. In 1992 they had their first parliamentary and presidential elections for state institutions proclaimed by the then deputies of the last session of the provincial assembly of Kosovo. In these elections, Ibrahim Rugova was elected president of Kosovo with an absolute majority of votes, and his Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK) won the largest number of seats in the parliament. And while Rugova actually became the president of his compatriots, deputies who were elected at the time have never managed to meet, not even for the constitutional session of the parliament. Indeed, they once tried to meet in September 1992, but they were prevented by the Serbian police which had announced that it would "sharply react against any attempt to constitute the parliament". Therefore in 1996, the four-year mandate of the newly-elected deputies expired without their ever having met, and Mr. Rugova has constantly insisted that Kosovo parliament operated through "parliamentary Committees in which all the parties of the parliament were represented". In May 1996, just a few days before the mandate of the deputies expired, with a special decree, Mr. Rugova prolonged their mandate for another year, leaving the possibility open for the Kosovo parliament to finally have its constitutive session.

However, nothing of this happened in the course of 1996 either, so that he was forced, before 24 May, 1997, when the mandate of the deputies was expiring again, like his own five-year mandate, after consultations with several parties mostly represented in the parliament, to reach a decision that "new parliamentary and presidential elections be scheduled for 24 December, 1997", again leaving the possibility open for constitution of the parliament with the previous membership. However, despite the increased pressure of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo (PPK), at the head of which is now the unquestioned authority and the best known Kosovo political prisoner Adem Demaqi, Ibrahim Rugova has done nothing to enable constitution of the parliament. Perhaps this was greatly caused by the latest disturbances in Kosovo expressed especially in students' protest which took place in October, as well as the unclarified attacks on buildings and members of the Serbian police in Kosovo and the Albanians who are believed to be loyal to the Serbian regime. At the same time, in this period, Kosovo found itself in the turmoil of uncessant Serbian elections which lasted during the whole year, so that every attempt of the Albanians to have their own elections was believed to be capable of leading to fatal radicalization of the situation in Kosovo. The only explanation Ibrahim Rugova gave for the failure to constitute the parliament and schedule elections were "suggestions of friends", especially the Americans.

Even when everybody expected that elections would finally be scheduled for 24 December, Mr. Rugova announced that 24 December would just be the date when the elections would be scheduled. And in the end and according to the announcements, at an extraordinary and festive meeting eith the journalists proclaimed that new parliamentary and presidential elections in Kosovo would take place on 22 March, 1998, or in other words, six years after the previous elections.

Ibrahim Rugova declared that in making this decision he relied on the Constitution of Kosovo proclaimed in Kacanik in 1990, which was later supplemented. According to the statement of Jonuz Salihaj, vice-president of the PPK, Rugova founded his decision on an amendment which was later incorporated into the Constitution.

The just scheduled elections without constitution of the previous parliament, which according to the mentioned Constitution should have scheduled new elections, caused differences among political parties in Kosovo. Once again divisions among political parties became prominent. On the one hand are the constant supporters of Rugova's policy and on the other are supporters of stands of Adem Demaqi, that is members of his own party and those of UNIKOMB who were not consulted at all by Mr. Rugova.

Observers of the developments in Kosovo tend to think that those who question Rugova's decision to schedule elections without constituting the previous parliament mostly belong to the class of political prisoners who have "their own reasons for such a stand". Therefore, it is assessed that in possible elections, former political prisoners who are treated here as leftists and who had the majority in the unconstituted parliament, nowadays have a minimum of chances to be re-elected. The reason for this is that they are considered to be an already used political card, because for the past six years they have not been able to get organized and hold a single constituting session of the parliament. They have even themselves assessed that they had let down the voters who had put their trust in them.

Scheduling of new elections in Kosovo was also assessed as a powerful political blow stricken by Rugova at the recently formed Democratic Forum of Kosovo initiated by Adem Demaqi, which was joined by 13 political and non-political organizations and associations which operate in Kosovo. The aim of this Forum was to be the counterpart of the Coordination of Albanian political parties and make decisions instead of it concerning foreign and internal issues of Kosovo. By the very fact that Rugova had consultations concerning scheduling the elections on the level of the Coordination and that he appeared at the press conference with its representatives, was self-indicative. Demaqi has once again suffered defeat in his effort to take over the political scene of Kosovo and become the leader of Kosovo Albanians.

Ibrahim Rugova, as he said in his meeting with the journalists, evaluated the current moment as the most suitable for scheduling elections, among other, because of "advanced position of Kosovo on international agendas", as well as numerous international initiatives for resolving the question of Kosovo, initiatives which have obviously forced Rugova to create a new political and institutional reality in Kosovo, as well as to reinforce his position internally, especially after numerous attacks against him personally and the policy he pursues, attacks on his image of a pacifist politician, which was especially insisted on by three members of the Liberation Army of Kosovo which assumed responsibility for a series of enigmatic murders in Kosovo in the past two years.

Indeed, regardless of whether the elections will take place in March or not, this step was assessed as a manifestation of power and unquestioned authority of the first post-communist leader of Kosovo. And after that, it remains to be seen...

AIM Pristina

Rrahman PACARIZI