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CONTENTS: 23 NOV. 2001 MALIQI: WHOSE HOSTAGE IS CO-GOVERNANCE?
"The only institution satisfied with the general elections, which took place on 17 November in Kosovo, is the international community. As far as the internationals are concerned, everything went right. The elections flowed properly, no incidents took place and all political parties participated, including Serb coalition Povratak'. Different from last year, the internationals were not at all impressed with the results of the elections, the act of voting and the changes that took place. It is quite normal for the electorate to change its opinion of a political leader or party and vote for someone else. Movements in the voters' choice are quite normal. The electorate in Eastern Europe, respectively the societies in transition have drastically moved from one political specter to another, for example the elections in Bulgaria, which took place at the same time as the elections in Kosovo. The party, which inherited the former communist regime won in Bulgaria. Why should Kosovo be an exception and does the electorate have the right to change its directions? The internationals might not be surprised with the results of the elections, but we cannot say the same thing about the entities that participated in the electoral competitions. We can rightly say that the entities remained disappointed and unsatisfied. This goes for the small parties as well, a majority of which marked catastrophic results just like in the local elections. The serious entities, which assured participation in the parliament, show signs of dissatisfaction. This goes especially for Ibrahim Rugova and the LDK, whose chairmanship was convinced that their party would gain another easy and evident victory, which would guarantee them the full government and power over the main posts in administering a postwar Kosovo. The fact that the LDK won less than fifty places in the parliament, which consists of 120 mandates, is almost a defeat for the LDK. Although a bit late, the LDK leaders have finally understood the traps of the Constitutional Framework and the electoral system, which they approved without thinking twice because they were convinced that they would win a majority of the votes. Even while the elections were ongoing, these people pretended that they already won 70 percent of the votes, which is unreal. The LDK lost a great part of the Albanian electorate. During the local elections, the party won 59 % of the votes, while this year they won only 52% of the electorate. However, due to Serb participation in the elections, the percentages of the won votes had to be decreased. As far as the LDK is concerned, we can say that the party won in the general election due to the inertion and without having launched an active electoral campaign (it won by gaining from the mistakes of the other political parties). The parties, which had less success in the local elections, the PDK and AAK invested more by changing their discourse and platform during the general elections. These parties expected more and were therefore disappointed with the results. However they marked a slight increase among the Albanian electorate, a fact that can be considered as an encouraging tendency regarding their stabilization. This goes especially for the AAK, which had and still has a structure, which consisted of many entities. Meanwhile, the LKÇK and LPK have departed the party, but the AAK did indeed proceed forward. We can leave further analyses regarding the choice of the electorate sideways for now because the analyses should be associated with more precise explanation regarding the population's choice not to participate in the elections. A hypothetic conclusion regarding this might be that during the local elections, people who were hesitant regarding the party they should vote for, at the last moment decided for the LDK because this party was considered to be the victim of violence and the factor of stability and security. It was a different story during the general elections, the votes of the hesitant remained hesitant because the LDK was not seen as a factor of stability any longer and people did not have enough trust in the other political parties. Now that the elections concluded in results, which do not allow a single entity to govern, the establishment of self-governing institutions will be very different from what was expected. We are very well aware of the fact that the process of establishing self-governing institutions will not be easy. The naïve and irresponsible promises regarding the elections being a formal process of the population winning the mandate go down the toilet. The most serious candidate for the post of the president, Ibrahim Rugova is a great optimist. According to him, independence guaranteed and only the formal acknowledgment of the international community is required now. But, apparently, the post of Kosovo's president is not exactly guaranteed for Rugova. As far as independence is concerned, it is not on the agenda of the stage to install transitive government in Kosovo. For the moment, the political entities have not made any statements regarding their plans of establishing self-governing institutions in Kosovo during the next few days and weeks. As far as the establishment of the parliament is concerned, we are not yet aware of any obstructive options. The LDK has unofficially expressed its doubts in the process of counting the votes by saying that 'something' has been violated, but did not make any official complaints. The parliament will be established following the official announcement of the results, which will take place sometime during December. We foresee great problems in the establishment of other institutions. The most important posts, such as the post of the president, head of the parliament, prime minister and other ministers will turn into issues of negotiations. These negotiations are in the stage of speculative options. The greatest battle will most probably be regarding the post of the president, which although is very symbolic, it is very important in the stage of making the institutions function properly. Rugova's target of becoming the president of Kosovo has been seriously challenged. Nevertheless, he remains the main candidate for this post. An open issue for Rugova is what should his measures be for obtaining the necessary votes for the third round in order to become Kosovo's president. The LDK would have to enter a coalition with other political entities, whose combinations are not very appealing for the LDK. In fact, the LDK is now expressing great indignation toward the Constitutional Framework, a document that the party approved of without thinking twice. Now the party says that the Framework does not assure stable governance. Several LDK members turned out to be against a coalition, because according to them, coalitions will not result in proper and stable governance. This is simply absurd. There are very few governments led by a single party in advanced democracies. On the contrary, a majority of democratic governments are coalition governments. It is much better for Kosovo, which in the first stage of establishing democratic institutions, to have a government, whose governmental structures would control it. Thus, the parties, which have remained outside the government, would form oppositional groups within the parliament. Rugova and the LDK for twelve years have been functioning as movements, whose aim is to represent the national and state interest. Rugova and the LDK's challenges are that they should now become profiles of a particular interest, which does not have the support of the majority of the Kosovars. Thus, one of the co-governance formulas will be imposed to us. Which formula will this be, will show the process of the negotiations, which are not very easy and might bring unexpected solutions. It is very possible for Rugova to resign from the post of the candidate in order to make it easier for his party to reach a more effective model of co-governance. It is crucial for people to be aware of the fact that the future institutions will not serve to personal ambitions. These institutions are Kosovo's institutions. The current trauma of the LDK and Kosovo's 'president' cannot turn into the trauma of Kosovo. We will soon see clearly and understand who is engaged toward the important issues and who wants to promote himself and his personal government. Three years ago, it was impossible for the Kosovar political entities to build even the smallest joint programs. This is supposed to take place now as Kosovo's governance program is in the stage of establishing self-governance institutions. The electoral campaigns have shown us that there are no great differences among the parties; expect differences in their ambitions. Animosities in politics are very frequent, however their pragmatism forces the parties and their leaders to negotiate with the opponents. Rugova, who is 'soft and moderate', did not act as a pragmatic politician when he refused to be in contact with his opponents and rivals during the last few years. An example of this was Rugova's continuous refusal to meet the officials and oppositionists of Albania or ignore the invitations of other Kosovar entities, which wanted to openly discuss the issues that concern Kosovo and find a platform for joint acts. Rugova, who used to have the support of 99% of the electorate, has now lost more than half of the electorate's support. This is a very serious lesson for Rugova and Kosovo. Following the war, the LDK has remained a hostage of Rugova's personal ambitions and charisma. The time has come for things to proceed forward and change because in a democracy, there are no immortal government and charisma. As far as I am concerned, in the stage of establishing self-governing institutions it is much better and acceptable for a government to be established upon programs and principles, which are controllable and repairable than an entity's government, which is built upon the uncontrollable and uncontestable charisma of a leader."
More than 240 votes in Prishtina were returned to LDK. Similar happened in Viti while counting conditional votes where according to LDK verifiers more than 200 votes were taken from LDK and given to the Serb coalition Povratak, which had only 28 votes, reported Bota Sot on page nine. Assertions that OSCE made mistakes in counting the 17 November elections votes are slowly coming true. Even the OSCE is admitting its known mistakes. Yesterday CEC secretariat answered positively to a LDK complaint that 243 of its votes were mistakenly placed to the Povratak coalition, which was numerically one number before the LDK. The results are as following: "243 votes were taken from the subject number 22 and were returned to 23 the LDK," said CEC secretariat. The same happened with more than 200 LDK votes in Viti. LDK has announced that there are remarks also made in Gjakovë, Podujevë and Pejë. These are some of the details that lessen the confidence of the reliability of votes counted. LDK believes that because of the many cases in question and the high percentage of the invalid votes they should be reexamined and recounted.
While European media openly speak of independence for Kosovo the European Union has even frozen the idea for Kosovo status, Koha Ditore carried on page six a comment by Beqë Cufaj. When more than a year ago EU sanctioned Austria because Wolfgang Schuessel entered a coalition with Joerg Haider's radical party the political moreover the medial opinion were divided. One side was for applying and continuing the sanctions against Vienna because of the coalition in question. The other side, which was the minority not only, was against this EU decision but also it called it ridiculous. Newspaper with greet authority as the Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine but also The Times and The Guardian were the ones that gave this Brussels's decision very little longevity. What do the sanctions in Austria, which only few months after proved to be ridiculous, have to do with the current situation in Kosovo? At first sight nothing. If we look at things more closely we see the stance of the International community and concretely the EU toward Kosovo's independence. To say it simply in Brussels, London, Paris and Berlin Kosovo's independence is sanctioned. Even though everything is going toward that goal. Same as with Austria that was sanctioned most of the European opinion is against. The same newspapers that then were against putting sanction to Austria are today very openly and with courage speaking about Kosovo's possible and quick independence. Articles published these in Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine, The Guardian but also Frankfurter Rundschau and Tageszeitung have openly written that the unresolved status in Kosovo, or the sanctioning of even talks regarding this issue, present only another mistake by the international community because everything is going in that direction. For example yesterday's article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung by Matthias Rueb gives one of the most realistic views of the current situation in Kosovo, after the holding of the first free and democratic elections in Kosovo. This is a new dawning for the country regarding the fact that there are still burdens from the past, relations between Serbs and Albanians, the problem of the divided town of Mitrovica, every social, political and mostly economic aspects shows that Kosovo every day is laying down the road to independence. This is what Reub wrote in his text to say what it is most important, that is that in the Balkans for now there is no danger of greater Albania, however the longer the issue of Kosovo remains hanging in the air then the danger will grow greater from Albanian nationalism. Only if Kosovo's independence is recognized which can be very easily controlled once its independent, then there would be stability not only for Kosovo but for the whole region. Just as interesting and courageous as Reub's thesis, is the text in Tagesspiegel by Stephan Isarel who wrote that by not considering the issue of Kosovo's status or leaving it to hang in the air by the international community, leaves room for the nationalist and extremists who use the unresolved Kosovo's issue will allow them to remain in the surface but also will allow them to create political capital. Erich Ratthfeleder in Tageszeitung used the same arguments. In one word, the impression we got from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commenting the new dawning in Kosovo is that European diplomacy is waiting moreover it is frightened of thinking of opening the issue of Kosovo status, on the other hand the media in these countries are doing exactly the same thing that they did during the crisis in Austria. They are openly speaking about the necessity of removing the sanction on discussing Kosovo's independence. Perhaps it would be the task of Kosovo's parliament and government when it starts work to try and draw near these two sides: diplomats and their journalists.
The possibility of forming a coalition government that will govern Kosovo in the next three years has shaken Kosovar political parties reported Zëri on page one and three. The parties, which are sure to be represented in Kosovo's Parliament, are LDK, PDK, AAK Coalition Povratak and Vatan. While the presidential elections is expected to go the third vote and pass, the issue of the Prime Minister and the government is much more delicate, because it is expected that the government will assemble the real political forces from the Parliament. There is information that the noise that has been developing between the political parties regarding the possible coalitions does not remain only in the corridors of the Kosovar political parties when the ongoing relations between some of the Albanian political parties are very well know that G-5 representatives in Kosovo will offer to aid the negotiations. International pressure is believed to be the best way to escape the parliamentary crisis that awaits Kosovo. The political parties have not opposed the process of negotiations, which is expected to start this Saturday after elections results are officially announced. LDK the number one party in the parliament has not officially declared on the possibility of forming a coalition before the announcing of the official results. OSCE officials have stated that official elections results will be announced on Saturday and added that it will not bring many changes. The results could have been announced earlier however giving the fact that Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo Daan Everts is not currently in Kosovo the date was moved for Saturday. From the oncoming reactions it looks like that LDK was the only political patty that did not thought of the possibility of co-governing after the 17 November elections. On the other hand the second in number in Kosovo Parliament the PDK said that they are for a co-governing in the parliament. "We have said even earlier that at PDK we are ready to co-govern in the interests of Kosovo," said Jakup Krasniqi. "However, in this case it is different," the PDK cannot take the initiative, it is up to LDK giving the fact that they are majority in parliament. We have had several consultations with AAK and Vatan however the discussions for the coalition should be stared by the party that is a majority in the parliament emphasized Jakup Krasniqi. AAK is also for an all-party coalition, which implicates that the three main political parties must agree. "We have said earlier that we are ready to co-govern, however we will wait for the final results to see where we exactly stand," said Bujar Dugolli. "We have not offered any conditions to any of the parties regarding the posts or the start of the talks," said Dugolli. AAK also excludes the possibility of a coalition without the party that has the majority in parliament. There will negotiations between LDK, PDK and AAK in a process of talks where the international community will have its say, until an agreement for forming a coalition will be achieved. In the opposite, if the negotiations are unsuccessful Kosovo's newly elected Parliament could be dissolved.
Head of Serb Coalition Povratak Gojko Savic informed the Serb news agency FoNet that there is a possibility for Povratak to enter a coalition with Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo due to this party being democratically oriented, reported Zëri on page three. According to Savic, this can take place 'only under several conditions'. 'One of the main conditions is to guarantee complete freedom of movement for Serbs and to fulfill conditions, which would immediately improve the lives of the Kosovars, the safe return of all those who fled and guarantees that they can live in Kosovo in freedom,' FoNet quoted Savic, reported Zëri. He said that there is no possibility for the Povratak to enter a
coalition with the parties led by Ramush Haradinaj and Hashim Thaçi.
According to him, the coalition took this stance due to the implications
of Albanian political leaders in the crimes committed toward the Serb
civilian population in Kosovo.
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