15 Oct 2010 / 02:27
Kosovo’s Assembly approved the government’s strategy for the privatisation of Post Telecommunications of Kosovo, PTK on Thursday despite accusations from opposition parties that the parliament lacked the necessary quorum for the vote.
Petrit Collaku
As the parliamentary session got underway on Thursday, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, asked for a motion to postpone the vote on the strategy until the next sitting.
The party claimed that the privatisation strategy for PTK, Kosovo's most lucrative asset, had not been adequately prepared, but their motion did not pass.
Less than a minute after the LDK motion to postpone was defeated, Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi put the vote on the strategy to the MPs. Krasniqi held the vote as a number of deputies got up from their seats to leave the Assembly in protest.
47 deputies voted in favour of the strategy for PTK, two against and one abstained, according to the data from the Assembly's computers.
Following the approval Krasniqi said that a quorum had been reached and no rules were broken.
“The presence of the deputies was evidenced by their physical presence. When we started the voting procedure there were 100 deputies present in the Assembly,” Krasniqi told journalists after the session.
According to Article 51 of the rules of procedure for Kosovo’s Assembly, parliamentary sessions shall be suspended if the number of deputies present falls below one third of the total.
The rule states that “if less than one third of the members are present, a bell shall be rung for a period of five minutes and a count shall then begin.”
Local NGO “KDI”, which monitors the Assembly's work, has asked the competent bodies within the institution to investigate whether the rules were followed in the vote on the PTK strategy.
LDK, a member of the ruling coalition, and a number of opposition parties have said they will file a suit at the Constitutional Court if the Assembly does not withdraw the decision.
The government is planning to sell 75 per cent of PTK’s assets but economic experts warn that this new development could affect the moves of foreign investors interested in the sale.
Questions are mounting about the privatisation of PTK as plans to sell it face a growing number of setbacks.
As the parliamentary session got underway on Thursday, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, asked for a motion to postpone the vote on the strategy until the next sitting.
The party claimed that the privatisation strategy for PTK, Kosovo's most lucrative asset, had not been adequately prepared, but their motion did not pass.
Less than a minute after the LDK motion to postpone was defeated, Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi put the vote on the strategy to the MPs. Krasniqi held the vote as a number of deputies got up from their seats to leave the Assembly in protest.
47 deputies voted in favour of the strategy for PTK, two against and one abstained, according to the data from the Assembly's computers.
Following the approval Krasniqi said that a quorum had been reached and no rules were broken.
“The presence of the deputies was evidenced by their physical presence. When we started the voting procedure there were 100 deputies present in the Assembly,” Krasniqi told journalists after the session.
According to Article 51 of the rules of procedure for Kosovo’s Assembly, parliamentary sessions shall be suspended if the number of deputies present falls below one third of the total.
The rule states that “if less than one third of the members are present, a bell shall be rung for a period of five minutes and a count shall then begin.”
Local NGO “KDI”, which monitors the Assembly's work, has asked the competent bodies within the institution to investigate whether the rules were followed in the vote on the PTK strategy.
LDK, a member of the ruling coalition, and a number of opposition parties have said they will file a suit at the Constitutional Court if the Assembly does not withdraw the decision.
The government is planning to sell 75 per cent of PTK’s assets but economic experts warn that this new development could affect the moves of foreign investors interested in the sale.
Questions are mounting about the privatisation of PTK as plans to sell it face a growing number of setbacks.
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