At Thursday's session, the agenda included, among other things, filling three vacant positions on the Public Procurement Commission.
21 candidacies were put to the vote in the session. When announcing the agenda item, Chairman Niko Peleshi was careful to remember that, according to the rules, a “simple majority of votes” was required for approval.
Article 55, point 3, in the Rules of Procedure, defines a majority as “the number of 'pro' votes that is more than half of the deputies in the chamber”.
At the end of the vote, three candidates received 73 votes each and one candidate received 44 votes.
By simple arithmetic, without the need for a calculator, with 84 deputies in the hall, the threshold for a simple majority is 43 votes. With this presence, four candidates from the voting secured the majority provided for by the regulation. The regulation does not diversify in any article how the final list is prepared, much less give the Speaker of the Assembly discretion to choose which simple majority is a greater majority than the other.
But, without any competence, the Speaker of the Parliament, Niko Peleshi, quickly decided that the "draft decision" for the candidate who secured 44 votes would not be approved.
In the official announcement published by the Assembly, only three names were included and, as justification for the decision of the Speaker of the Assembly, it was clarified that only three candidacies that received the most votes had been approved.
What if two candidates had secured 77 votes each and two others had secured 44 votes, which rabbit would the Speaker of the Assembly pull out of the hat?
Even a second-grade child, in the middle of a game with rubber soldiers, when he sees that there are four soldiers but only three pockets, would have stopped to think about how he would arrange one of the soldiers.
But it's hard to believe that, because it lacked pockets, he would throw the toy in the trash. Children are very empathetic, especially with rubber soldiers!
Article 55 of the Rules of Procedure does not state that, when the candidates who have secured the necessary votes are more than the vacant seats, those with the most votes are elected.
The regulation does not provide for the elimination of any candidate who has secured the votes that the regulation itself provides for.
If the regulation provides for a draw, then all four candidacies that secured the votes should have been entered into the draw.
From the Assembly's vote for vacant seats on the Public Procurement Committee, four candidates have crossed the threshold, securing the majority of votes of the deputies present.
Speaker Niko Peleshi, when announcing the opening of voting for the three vacant seats, reminded the deputies, according to the regulation, that a "simple majority of votes" was needed for approval.
But he didn't say that, if there were more winners, he would decide who to throw in the trash.
He didn't say it, because this rule doesn't exist!
