The Elections in Kosovo Judicial Council

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On March 10, 2013, “Justice in Kosovo” discussed the elections in Kosovo Judicial Council.

Among the questions discussed were: Who are the potential candidates for this position? When is the election process going to be held? What are Valdete Daka’s plans if she runs this institution? What does Enver Peci says? How is the election process going to be organized and who has the right to vote? Why do the lawyers think that the judges decided without reviewing the case files? What does the judge say about the accusations? Why does Kosovo have the highest number of detentions?

In the election there were two candidates, Valdete Daka and Enver Peci.

Kosovo Judicial Council is the highest justice body, which decides for the election and suspension of judges, and organizes other justice bodies.

Both of the candidates have plans for the future if they are elected. Daka believes that based on her three years of experience as KJC member, she has the ability to run the council. According to Daka, KJC should increase the transparency with the public and it should also balance the powers between the branches: “There should be a balance between judiciary and other branches. Our branch was always left aside despite the fact that we are equal to other branches. The judiciary should hire more judges and a professional staff in order to lower the number of cases.” Daka promised that if she is elected as the Head of the Council, she will raise the funds for a professional staff.

Meanwhile, the other candidate, Peci claims that he is running for the Head of the Council not by its own will, but because the other members of the council chose him and thought that he is the right person for that position for three upcoming years. In addition, Peci admits that there have been some failures of KJC, but they were inherited from the past: “As we may know, in the beginning we had problems in dividing competencies and then we had the process of verification where we verified all the judges and as a result the number of cases.” In the future mandate, he plans to lower the number of cases.

According to Peci, KJC does not have funds to engage professional co-workers because the budget that we requested was not approved by the Ministry of Finances and the Parliamentary Commission. KJC has a lot of work to do in order to change the perception about the judiciary in Kosovo.

Both candidates, Daka and Peci, do not have any plan on how to solve the issue of the courts in Northern Kosovo because they say that politics should resolve this issue.