Building parliamentary democracy in Kosovo Franklin de Vrieze1 As Kosovo’s political landscape is developing further following the declaration of independence in February 2008, this article analyzes the performance of the Assembly of Kosovo during its second mandate (2004-2007). The primary question of this article is to what extent the Assembly of Kosovo, by the end of its second mandate, had realized the three main functions of parliament: the legislative, oversight and representative functions. The article demonstrates how political changes in the Assembly and a subsequent reform package have generated an improvement in the performance of the Assembly. The article also analyzes the way in which the international community has assisted the Assembly in the development of the three parliamentary functions and how the Assembly of Kosovo has been affected by the Standards-before-status process and other policy interventions of the international community. Prior to the chapters on each of the main functions of parliament, the article provides background information on the institutional and political developments in Kosovo during the period under consideration. I. Institutional and political developments in Kosovo United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1244 (1999) established an interim international civilian administration, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) as the ultimate responsible actor. In 2001, the SRSG promulgated a Constitutional Framework, which defined the division of responsibilities between UNMIK and local institutions. These institutions were henceforth called the ‘Provisional Institutions of Self-Government’ (PISG) and were established for the purpose of developing meaningful self-government in Kosovo pending a final settlement. The Kosovo-wide Assembly had two full mandates, each with a three-year duration, during the time of the UN Mission in Kosovo. While the first mandate (2001-2004) was marked by the creation and further fine-tuning of an institutional framework for the PISG, the second mandate of the Assembly (2004-2007) has been characterized by three main political developments: first, changes in Kosovo’s senior political leadership; second, the fact that Kosovo- Serb politicians boycotted the PISG and third, the developments on ‘standards 1 Franklin De Vrieze has been monitoring developments in Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia since 1992. Working for the OSCE Mission in Kosovo since 2001, he is the Chief of the ‘Central Assembly and Political Parties Section’ in the OSCE Mission. He is also head of the ‘Assembly Support Initiative’, the donor-coordination mechanism for all support programmes to the Assembly of Kosovo. The article reflects his own analysis and does not necessarily represent the OSCE position. 122 Franklin de Vrieze and status’. The article will examine the performance of the Assembly of Kosovo during its second mandate, in light of this institutional context and the mentioned changes. Changes in Kosovo’s senior political leadership Following the first parliamentary elections in November 2001, a broad coalition of the main Kosovo-Albanian political parties — LDK, PDK, AAK — took office, under the leadership of Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi.2 After the second parliamentary elections in November 2004, a coalition government was formed between the LDK, AAK and non-Serb minorities (in particular Kosovo-Turks and Bosniaks), with the AAK chairperson Ramush Haradinaj as Prime Minister. For the first time, Kosovo had an active parliamentary opposition facing a coalition government. During this mandate, Kosovo had a succession of three Prime Ministers. Prime Minister Haradinaj remained in office for 100 days until he was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and resigned on 8 March 2005. Bajram Kosumi succeeded him as Prime Minister of the same coalition government. On 1st March 2006, Kosumi resigned as Prime Minister, and he was succeeded by Agim Ceku. The coalition government of LDK, AAK, Kosovo-Turks and Bosniaks remained stable throughout its mandate notwithstanding some ministerial replacements. When the President of Kosovo, Dr Ibrahim Rugova, passed away on 21 January 2006, he was succeeded by Fatmir Sejdiu, Secretary General of the LDK and a Member of the Assembly Presidency, rather smoothly and in a democratic way. One of the most tense changes in the Kosovo leadership occurred in the Assembly of Kosovo. On the same day as Prime Minister Kosumi resigned, the LDK Presidency made public its decision to withdraw its support for the President of the Assembly, Nexhat Daci, and nominated Kole Berisha to replace him. After tense internal debates within the LDK, Daci agreed to resign on 9 March, one day before the Assembly held its extraordinary session to elect both the new President of the Assembly and a new Government and Prime Minister. Having lost his position as President of the Assembly, Daci stood as a candidate for the chairmanship of the ruling LDK party, alongside Sejdiu, President of Kosovo. When Sejdiu won the elections for the chairmanship of his party on 9 December 2006, the Daci group split away from the LDK and created their own party, the Democratic League of Dardania (LDD), however without withdrawing their support for the ruling coalition. 2 The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) under the leadership of Dr Ibrahim Rugova was the dominant political force in Kosovo throughout the 1990s. Following the end of the armed conflict in 1999, two new political parties emerged from the Kosovo Liberation Army: the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), under the leadership of Hashim Thaci, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), under de leadership of Ramush Haradinaj. See: F. De Vrieze, ‘Towards Self-Government in Kosovo’, Helsinki Monitor, 13 (2002), N. 1, pp. 11-13. Security and Human Rights 2008 no. 2 .