New Reactions to Balancer Tool Abolition and Equitable Representation Issue

Reactions to the abolition of the Balancer tool have continued. VLEN co-leader and Deputy Prime Minister Izet Mexhiti stated on Friday that a working group would be formed in the coming days that would compromise university professors.

They, he added, will discuss models and drafts, and will present the best text to regulate the issue of equitable representation.

“It will be in the spirit of respecting the constitutional category of equitable representation, while the Constitutional Court will not be given the possibility of abolishing this law in the future, as it has abolished several so far,” Mexhiti stated.

In his view, DUI is to blame for the Balancer abolition as it enabled the Court to abolish documents only by simple majority.

“This is the main flaw left behind by those whining today. If things had been different, the Court’s session wouldn’t have seen the Balancer tool abolished because the three Judges, the two from the ethnic Albanian community and the one from the Turkish one, voted against,” Mexhiti stressed.

While VLEN’s stand is that the announced equitable representation draft-law to replace the Balancer tool should be adopted as soon as possible, PM Hristijan Mickoski has said that the quality of the adopted text is what matters the most. As he pointed out on Saturday, his suggestion is, once the final version arrives, for the document to be sent to the Venice Commission for an additional expert check.

VLEN co-leader Arben Taravari said the same day that he hoped that there would be the following week a public debate on the draft-law being prepared by VLEN. Ali Ahmeti’s party responded to previous accusations that during its time in power, it had voted in favour of the Administration Strategy and removal of the Balancer tool.

“In 2023, too, we were against this Strategy. It has never been voted through in Parliament. This strategy that DUI then, too, opposed, proposed laws whose provisions include equitable representation. DUI has always been the Ohrid Framework Agreement’s chief advocate. The principle of equitable representation stems from that Agreement,” the party said.