Pacolli's Election as Kosovo President Declared Illegal

World | March 28, 2011, Monday // 20:26
Bulgaria: Pacolli's Election as Kosovo President Declared Illegal Foreign Minister of Austria Michael Spindelegger (L) and Kosovo's President Behgjet Pacolli (R) speak to media following their meeting in Kosovo's capital Pristina, 25 March 2010. EPA/BGNES

The election of Kosovo's President in February 2011 was unconstitutional, Kosovo's highest court ruled Monday acting upon a suit filed by an opposition party.

By a majority vote, with two judges dissenting, Kosovo's Constitutional Court declared the decision of the Kosovo Parliament to elect Behgjet Pacolli as president on February 22, 2011, as unconstitutional.

The court did not provide the grounds for its decision but the opposition parliamentarians who filed the suit cited election irregularities.

It is still unclear whether there would be another vote in the parliament or if Pacolli now has to resign in the latest in a series of setbacks for the three-year-old country.

Monday's ruling marks the second time the Constitutional Court of Kosovo ruled against an acting head of state after in September 2010 Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu resigned as the court said he had violated the Constitution after serving also as a party leader.

Millionaire Pacolli is believed to be unpopular among the majority of Kosovo Albanians for having business relations with Russia, which is opposed to Kosovo's independence and supports Serbia in its claims on the young republic.

Pacolli was voted President by the Kosovo Parliament two months after the snap general elections in December. Since February 22, 2011, Pacolli has already welcomed foreign delegations and has managed to make one official state visit abroad, to neighboring Macedonia.

Pacolli's election as President came several days after Kosovo celebrated its 3rd year of independence from Serbia – declared on February 17, 2008.

His election was a deal negotiated between Pacolli's small New Kosovo Alliance and PM Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo, which won the elections in December.

Pacolli controls a large international construction and civil engineering business.

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Tags: kosovo, Hashim Thaci, elections, Behgjet Pacolli, Kosovo President, Kosovo Constitutional Court

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